Fated To End
by AK-103
Summary: Now a changed man, Naruto had decided to leave it all behind. His hopes. His dreams. His ambition. But he couldn't for the love of god get rid of his Shounen archetype. Thus making him realize that, if the world were to end, he'd need to be there and stop it. And that's what happened. AU heavy, you have been warned. Will have minor crossovers with other series. M for safety.
1. End of The World

**Chapter title's brought to you by Skeeter Davis.**

* * *

If you asked him if he was ever going to join an organization tasked with the duty to prevent the inevitable end of mankind several years ago...

...he would've said no.

But now... he had to hold his opinion on the matter.

"So you're telling me that humanity – as a whole – is doomed to extinction?"

If you thought that he's irritated judging from the sound of his voice, then you'd be right. Oh, but don't blame him, he's not the one at fault. Everyone and anyone woken up from their restful sleep at an unreasonable time of the night would naturally feel irritated. Him, however, he's borderline mad. He's literally _this_ close on using a rasengan to launch the person he's talking with sky high.

"Basically, yeah."

His blonde eyebrows twitched at the lackluster reply. The dark bags under his eyes were enough evidence to show his unwillingness to deal with the matter at this time of the night. It's 4:50 in the morning, the sky was still dark outside and he should – by all rights – be in bed and sleeping his ass off.

"Listen, this might seem insensitive and uncharacteristic of me and all..." The blonde haired man who'd been denied of his sleep muttered. "...but couldn't you pick a better time to discuss this? Haven't you heard of business hours, ya' cunt?"

Despite the profanity, the other man didn't show any signs of being offended. And it's more than just a matter of being thick skinned. He knew that his blonde friend didn't curse often, and if he did, it'd be to express genuine irritation or anger. And right now, his friend's irritation and anger were justified.

The two men were seated on the chairs inside the blonde's spacious dining room. The owner of the house prepared two steaming mug of hot cocoa for the both of them but at the moment, only one of them was enjoying the hospitality; namely the guest.

Taking a long swig of the hot beverage, the other man placed his mug back on the table, wiping the chocolate moustache with the sleeve of his expensive three piece suit.

"You'll have to forgive me for the untimely visit, old friend. I've been going through a tight schedule." The man sighed remorsefully, shaking his head. "But such is the life of a Wizard Marshall, I suppose... being one of the few beings who only has a single existence, I don't have multiple versions of myself to rely on."

He's not a Time Lord, after all.

"Hm, understandable." It sucked to admit it, but he's familiar with the hassle of interdimensional travel. "So, what do you want me to do about this 'end of the world' business, huh?"

The Wizard Marshall stopped raising his mug halfway to his mouth, seemingly out of shock. His eyes went wide by a miniscule margin, staring at his blonde friend weirdly.

The blonde, realizing that the old blood sucker was misunderstanding him, clenched his fist. "Of course I'll help stop it, you daft oaf, I'm just asking what do you want me to do with it now. As in right now." He used his pinky finger to pick his ear. "Isn't there an organization set up by one of your people from the Clock Tower dedicated with the sole intent of preventing humanity's extinction?"

"Well, technically it's not directly connected to the Clocktower, but yes."

"Then, what, you want me to join them?" the blonde asked, finally picking up his mug to drink the now warm drink.

"I want you to lead them if possible."

"Hell no." The blonde flatly rejected as soon as he could without missing a beat.

"...which is why I said 'if possible'..." Zelretch sighed, letting air out through his teeth. With both arms on the table, he began massaging his knuckles. "Look, old friend, I know that you're basically retired…"

The other man sitting across of the Kaleidoscope merely raised one of his eyebrows, gesturing Zelretch to not beat around the bush.

"And it might seem weird hearing this coming from me, but this world cannot end just yet. Its decay and potential extinction… it's not natural, hell, I don't think even Gaia had a hand in this."

"Then are you saying that something must've tipped off the flow of events along the way… like a, divergence of events?" Asked the blonde man.

"...yes, that's probably it." Zelretch murmured, with his mug right in front of his mouth.

"So… why haven't they sent any counter forces to deal with the matter?"

Zelretch raised both of his eyebrows, feigning shock. "For such a large scale end result? You might as well end the world now. The thing is, we both know that both Alaya and Gaia will respond with equal force as to who or whatever's threatening the world… and we also know that the term 'collateral damage' isn't anywhere in their books."

At that, the blonde man showed a grimace. Poor Atlantis…

Raising his mug, the blonde took the silence as an opportunity to think by himself. Was humanity's extinction unexpected to him? Hell yes. He's not some kind of omniscient god-like being that can see the future, he's only an omnipotent god-like being that can care less about the future. Why, one might ask…

Well, it's because if it's concerning the future, what's he going to do about it now, huh? Should he fast forward time so that he could stop the problem from happening? Hell no, that'd be too much work. Which was why he always leave any problems happening in the future to the future him.

Letting tomorrow's him deal with tomorrow's bullshit or whatever.

But now that Zelretch had gone and drop all of this on him… he couldn't just ignore and do nothing now could he?

He had to get up from his seat and deal with this shit, now should he?

 _The bastard._

Letting out a long and frustrated sigh, the blonde pinched the bridge of his nose. Seeing this, Zelretch placed down his now empty mug to listen to what the blonde had to say.

"Listen… does the hag know about this?" the blonde asked through gritted teeth.

"Who? Yakumo?" Zelretch asked, eyebrows moving to suit the tone of his voice.

"Hn." nodded the blonde absentmindedly.

"Honestly, I don't know." Zelretch shrugged his shoulders. "And I can only care less if she does or doesn't."

"The two of you don't get along well, do you?"

The master of the Second Magic said nothing, averting his gaze from his blonde counterpart.

"Anyhow…" The blonde sighed. "I'll consider checking out this resistance. Chaldea, is it?"

Zelretch nodded. "Yup. Ah, and for the record, don't tell them I told you to check them out. I really don't want to deal with the rest of the folks back at the Clocktower questioning me. This world's Clocktower, at least."

The man's answer only aggravated the blonde. "Oh, but it's fine when I'm the one they start suspecting of suspicious behavior, huh?"

Zelretch grunted in response, crossing his arms. "Well, that's only because you're pretty much a ticking bomb in the eyes of the magi community."

"Wha?!" He made the expression of a fish being out of water for several seconds. He could not believe what he was hearing. "Me? A ticking bomb?! Explain to me just how am I a ticking bomb, Zel. Explain that to me ya' vampiric troll."

Smirking at the insult, Zelretch was going to enjoy what he's going to say. Propping his hands on the table, he rested his chin above his knuckles while his lips were in the form of an irritating smirk that only fueled the blonde's ire by the second.

"Ye'r freaking powerful, that's established." Zelretch said.

"And special."

The blonde man didn't like the way Zelretch said the word 'special'.

"I remembered how the common magi responded to your reintegration into society a couple of centuries ago… they even placed a sealing designation on you. A very high one, I might add… even to the point of treating you as the Grail itself."

The blonde kept his silence, letting the other man speak.

"It didn't help when you showed them what you could do. They threatened you and you fought back, hard. Of course, you decimated every magus they sent after you with overwhelming power." Chuckled the man, as if he'd just remembered something amusing.

"They said things about how you're able to make an army consisting of nothing but yourself, control the air and wind, manipulate gravity, cause madness just by a glance of your eyes… all of that you done to them to the point where they had to make a flee on sight command to any magus who are unlucky enough to bump into you." The older looking man snickered. "Might as well treat you like the plague."

"Oi." He took offense to that.

Zelretch continued speaking, much to the blonde's annoyance.

"They tried everything, even went as far as to working together with the Church's Executors because at some point, they started suspecting you of being an Ancestor. This went along for how long?"

"A hundred years or so." shrugged the blonde man.

"Yeah, a whole century!" Zelretch barked a laugh, wiping a tear from his eye. "Even then, several hundred years later, they're still sending people just so that they can learn more about you. Oh, the effort and work you've made them done… I'm envious that I didn't get to have a hand in this at all." The master of Second Magic grinned. "Still, even to this day, you're considered as a huge mystery by the Mage's Association, not only the Clocktower."

"Power and mystery is a bad combination… no one likes those, I'll admit, not even me." Zelretch chuckles while scratching his grey beard. "In any case, we're getting sidetracked here, I'm sure that you'd be a great assistance to the brave men and women who are fighting on the frontlines."

The blonde man scoffed openly, rolling his blue eyes at the exaggeration Zelretch showed. "Don't get all patriotic on me, ya' old troll." He harrumphed on his spot, although it felt like his aggression was toned down just by a little bit.

So, now, someone had just asked him to join the battle for humanity's survival. Should he join?

Honestly, he'd pretty much do things and deal with things his own way, rather than having an entire organization to turn to. It might seem rich hearing it coming from him, as someone who's literally famed for cloning himself for almost anything, but he worked well when alone.

Ugh, even saying that in his head made him feel like a certain dark haired prick.

But things have changed and he had no better choice but to work alone. He had a choice to work with others, but why would he? Between having to deal with different opinions and get into a potential debate with another head and having himself to count on, he'd rather take the latter.

And it's not like he could expect much from people these days… even with magi.

"Look," Zelretch's gruff voice brought him out of his thoughts. "I know you don't like it when you have to deal with the potential death of your future comrades; but-"

"No."

Like a blade that could metaphorically and literally cut through anything, his words stopped Zelretch from continuing his sentence.

" _No."_

The lights above their heads flicker, going on and off as if they've malfunctioned. The same goes for the two empty mugs on the table, rattling despite the lack of movement around them.

Zelretch kept his mouth shut, his look turned pensive as he observed his blonde friend.

"It's… not like that."

The blonde started speaking.

"You know that death isn't a problem for me…" The blonde muttered with a crisp but shallow tone, sounding as dead as the atmosphere in the dining room. "It's never about death." He shook his head.

"It's what comes with it that I hate."

Humanity is the only creature that sees death in two forms; a means to end all things… and a door to even more problem. Humans leave everything behind when they die.

Their names, their belongings, dreams, loved ones…

They also leave behind emotions.

Zelretch refrained from speaking, mainly out of respect for the blonde. If he said he understood the blonde, he'd be lying. He considered the blonde sitting in front of him to be as much of a mystery as the people from the Mage's Association did, maybe even more, since he'd seen what the man could do.

As in, could _really_ do.

From the things he'd seen the blonde did, only more questions appeared regarding the blonde. Even until now, Zelretch's far from scratching the surface of the mysterious box that was the man sitting in front of him. He could try and put real effort into satiating his curiosity, but what good would that do?

It'd put to rest some questions he had, sure, but that's just about it. Besides, he had always fancy himself a little bit of mystery, kind of like that Sherlock fellow.

An irritated sigh coming from the blonde disrupted Zelretch's train of thoughts, causing him to look at his companion. He's greeted by a glaring blue eyed, whisker faced blonde; great.

"Screw you, you blood sucking troll. You made me think about depressing stuff, ya' cunt."

Yeah, he could also be a real ass when he wanted to.

"But… I guess I'll look into this group you've mentioned a little bit more carefully." The blonde said, scratching the base of his chin. "Just don't blame me if I have to take drastic measures when the Mage's Association eventually decided to do something."

Smiling, the older looking man looked like he had a remedy to the blonde's problem. "I got you covered." Reaching inside his coat inner pocket compartment, pulling out a rectangular paper envelope. He slid the envelope on the table, and the receiver smoothly caught it with his palm.

"That should be able to get the Mage's Association suspicion off of you for the foreseeable future, at least, if you look convincing enough to not cause trouble in the first place… something I've heard you're _bad_ at doing."

"Oh sod off." Scoffed the blonde.

Chuckling, the master of the Second Mafic known to magi began fixing his crooked attire; straightening what creases and folds he could find. Swiftly, he rose from his chair, standing at full height.

"Well, that's about all that I want to talk to you." Even if he did end up 'convincing' the blonde to do something he was reluctant to do initially. "I wish you luck in your future endeavors, old friend. And please, whatever you do, do _not_ enlist Yakumo's help." The Kaleidoscope look stern and serious as he said this.

The blonde man scoffed. "That woman's the last person I want to be in this world," he waved his hand, as if dismissing Zelretch's warning as something outrageous. "I don't want anything to do with her or her Lunarian 'friends' again for that matter."

Sensing the spiteful and downright venomous tone in the blonde's voice, Zelretch sighed. "You really dislike the moonfolks, don't you?"

"I have at least FOUR good reasons why." The blue eyed blonde scoffed aggressively. "Now shoo, go. Go and make someone else's life more miserable or something you old fart."

Chuckling for the last time, Zelretch said his goodbyes. "Well, may we meet again in the near future… should this world survives, and I'm serious about Yakumo, Uzumaki. Don't bring her in on this."

Dismissing the man's warning with a flick of the air in front of him, Naruto was tempted to use Kamui and send the old fart into the dark pocket dimension. But before he could do that or hold on to the idea of doing it, the man was already gone from where he's standing. He felt the fabrics of reality weaving itself back together after Zelretch's use of his teleportation magic had caused it to untangle.

Now all alone in his dining room, Naruto could have peace all to himself.

The blonde haired man ran his fingers through his golden mop of a hair. It's been a while ever since his last haircut… it wouldn't hurt to visit the barber sometime later, he thought.

Scratching his chin, he could feel the sharp prickly sensation of poorly shaven facial hair running down jawline. He shaved earlier this morning, nothing serious, just a quick one with the razor. Again, he needed to do something about it.

Standing up, he picked up the two mugs and dropped them off at the sink. He left them there after a quick rinse of his own hands and proceeding to the living room. Looking around, he frowned at how… empty his house felt.

Although he had gotten used to it, it still felt strange having all of this much space for just one guy. And you couldn't blame him. He lived in a shabby apartment in the slums of his previous home for most of his younger days and when he got into this world, it didn't change that much either.

When was it again… it's been a long time, a very, very long time. One might think someone with a lifespan like his would remember things better than normal people, but no, such was not the case. In fact, it's more like the opposite. He got to see, experience and do so many things that remembering them would be a literal pain in the head.

He could just say that he's old… but the common folks wouldn't believe it if he said that he's older than thirty.

But it's not like he went around introducing himself to people anyway… the kind of life he's living now didn't allow that kind of opportunity. He could still meet people, but it's near impossible to maintain relationship. The fact that he was constantly on the move to avoid bothersome magi also added to it. But moving around wasn't so bad. It's probably how things were like for Jiraiya, a travelling Sage.

Well, he's technically one too now.

This house was one of the many properties he owned in Japan. He also owned more in other countries, at least three, in other parts of the world.

It's located in a nice neighborhood somewhere in Chiba, a quiet little place; that's how things went usually. Making his way upstairs, he entered his room. He should really tidy the room up a bit. Article of clothing were strewn all over the floor and crumpled up paper could be found lingering near the trashcan near the desk.

Walking over to the glass divider which separated his room from the small balcony, he slid open the door and stepped outside. Reaching into his pants' pocket, he grabbed a box of Marlboro cigarettes and proceeded to light one up for himself using a small Katon jutsu.

The taste of nicotine and cigarette smoke invaded his system, but unlike normal people, this wouldn't kill him. His body's regeneration wouldn't allow it… especially with how potent Kurama's chakra was.

" **You doing okay, kid?"**

Raising his head up slightly, he found himself gazing at the circular white disk on the sky. He could feel himself glaring as he stared at the damn thing.

" **...you're pissed off, I can tell."**

Taking a deep drag of the cigar in his mouth, he released the smoke to the air around him, dispersing quickly.

"Well, you can't blame me after what I've just heard can you, Kurama?" Sighed the blonde, his free hand which wasn't holding the cigar combed through his blonde locks.

" **Hmm… it's been ages ever since we encountered another end of the world scenario, hasn't it? Can't say I like it."**

His Bijuu friend paused.

" **So, are you going to see that little resistance you were talking about?"**

"Obviously." Answered the blonde. "I don't like this as much as you do... and as much as I'm sick of living like this, I don't want to die from some stupid ass prophecy that I had no say in." Nor would he like to see other people die.

" **Heh, you're always a sucker for things like this… prophecies and all those nonsense."**

Naruto rolled his eyes. He leaned his body forward, resting it on the railings of his balcony. He began to smoke in silence, a moment which was shared by Kurama from within the seal.

"How are the others in there?"

" **Feh, I already told you that I was against you materializing their consciousness. Now I'm stuck with eight annoying nuisance that I have to deal with inside the seal."**

Well, technically, it's within his body now since the seal was long gone. Through the use of of Rikudo Senjutsu, he found a way to 're-seal' the entire nine Bijuu into him without implementing a kind of imprisonment mechanism. It required him to physically rip their souls and then sealing it into his chakra system, which was why it was only possible using Rikudo Senjutsu; because it's not something that could be done with just Fuinjutsu alone.

Snickering at Kurama's plight, he could imagine the fox shouting at his siblings ordering up to shut up before the topic of their conversation spiral down into those with the most tails was the most powerful or something along those lines.

He did this a long time ago, maybe it was before he decided to rejoin society? He didn't know, but he's sure that it was way before the magi community decided to band up and form an association.

" **So, when are we leaving?"** asked Kurama. He's probably sick of arguing with his siblings and decided to resume conversation with his host.

Crushing the cigar with his bare hands, he then lit it up on fire, letting the ashen residue fade away into the wind. Taking and releasing a copious amount of air, he opened the glass divider.

"We'll leave as soon as we can… but first, I'll need to make a few phone calls."

And a little bit of shopping wouldn't hurt.

* * *

Long gone was the age of shinobi.

In fact, he'd say that they've never even existed at all in this world.

It would be impossible to find a semblance of relic related to his old world; this world was just far too different. It had its own set of governing principles, rules and laws. Yet somehow, he's an exception to them. Of course, he's talking about magecraft.

Magecraft was the modern magi's way of replicating magic or miracles. It's not true magic and it involved a lot of study and dedication in order to practice. In a way, they're similar to the Ninjutsu he's familiar with; only ninjutsu was something which was closer in comparison to its primordial origins; Ninshu.

He never really bothered with magecraft. He prefered sticking to his own guns. And with the kind of arsenal he's rocking, he saw no real need to seriously practice any form of magecraft. He's just familiar enough with the concept. It's been like this for ages and so far, things were hunky dory.

However, he'd like to introduce a little bit of variety here and there. Pretty much the basis of his arsenal was covered by the powers of the Bijuu in him, Senjutsu, Rikudo Senjutsu and Fuinjutsu. And the things he could accomplish with them were seemingly endless.

The smell of foreign oils and ointment filled the air, stenching it in a way that it'd make a gas station public restroom tolerable. The moment he entered the place, he could already feel them invading his lungs, forcing him to clench his nostrils shut with his fingers.

It didn't help that this place barely had any interior lighting. For an atelier of this size, the owner should've had invested in better lighting; if his eyes weren't so used to the dark, he wouldn't have been able to see four meters in front of him.

While he was busy internally complaining about how unaccommodating this establishment was, footsteps could be heard coming from deeper within the building, echoing yet not alarming him.

Instead, Naruto looked annoyed rather than spooked.

"Oi, I told you I'll be coming over today… I've been waiting here for thirty minutes now for Rikudo's sake." Grumbled the blonde man dressed in a formal business attire which consisted of a white buttoned shirt, black slacks, matching shoes and a maroon buttoned vest. He had his black coat folded over his left arm while his right was carrying a brown hardcover leather suitcase.

From within the building, out came a sloppily dressed man who looked like he had just been rudely awaken from his sleep. While that statement might hold some sliver of truth in it, he'd argue otherwise. He was a tall man, several inches taller than the blonde standing impatiently near the entrance to his atelier. The first thing he did when he reached the store section of his atelier was to glare at the blonde man, a gesture that was returned in a similar manner.

"… I know I shouldn't have agreed to meet up early in the morning." Groaned the man who also happened to be the owner of the atelier.

"It's eleven thirty, ya' sloth. It's a surprise that you can still maintain livelihood with how bad your services are."

Sighing, the owner walked toward the counter and activated a small switch underneath. With a flick, the room was lit up in blue light; glowing dimly and softly so that it wouldn't hurt the eyes. Then, the light began to shift in color; going from blue to green and finally orange.

"You set up a new system?" asked Naruto, walking up to the counter and setting down his suitcase there. "To keep the annoying ones away?"

"Yes." replied the owner, his messy hair and tactless yawning made for a pathetic sight for the blonde to see. "You called me late at night, while I was busy setting them up properly, now they can only detect residual mana. So this better be worth my time or else I'm banning you for good this time."

The blonde scoffed, flicking a stray lock of blonde hair.

"You can't afford to ban me, Elias. I'm the only one dumb enough to buy your wares these days." The blonde glanced down briefly, before flicking his sights back to look at the man. " And you don't have to use that form on me, it's not like I haven't seen your ugly mug."

"Hmph."

Elias ran a hand through his chestnut blonde mane of a hair. His face contorting to show displeasure at the fellow blonde's statement, but he resigned to the suggestion anyway. A shift around the space surrounding Elias' head occured, casting forth black miasma which constantly flickered back and forth into existence. Despite the phenomenon occurring right before his very eyes, Naruto was unfazed by the scene, in fact, one could say that he's bored.

The shifting and changing slowly came to a halt, leaving behind something which was much different than what was there initially. Gone was the handsome and rugged face of a blonde haired and pure eyed gentleman, replaced by something which was the exact opposite of that.

Ashen white and cherry red, with horns protruding from his head; Elias looked nothing like the human he was before. With two hircine horns attached to a canine skull, his visage was akin to the stuff from nightmares. It reminded Naruto of those tribal native effigies made out of animal bones and carcass, but Elias was none of those things. He's much more complex. But it's not his story to tell. Not ever.

"So, what do you need?" Nothing changed much about his voice. This time, his jaw did not move along with his speech.

"The usual." replied the whiskered man smoothly in a gruff tone.

Elias stared at the now shorter blonde - due to the after effects of his transformation - wordlessly, before eventually moving to retrieve something from underneath the counter.

"Ya' have it prepared for me, why bother asking?"

Elias did not reply to the question. From the bottom of the counter, he pulled out a worn leather knife bag; commonly found in the possession of butchers and the likes. Undoing the leather straps from their secure metal buckles, Elias unrolled the bag to reveal its content; using almost a third of the countertop.

He met Elias a long time ago, back when the magus was still doing odd jobs for the church. It was something he found strange, seeing as the magi community rarely ever work together with the church; it was much stranger in Elias' case since he was not human. But, he knew his place and did not bother asking questions. Their meetings had been limited only to him purchasing his trinkets from Elias and nothing more.

"Hm… they seem to be different, did you do something to them?" Commented the whiskered blonde while tapping at his chin.

"Just a little bit of improvement." The horned being finally answered after being silent from before. "It should be much safer and stabler to handle, especially with the destructive nature of these things."

"Neat."

Naruto had tinkered with chemistry before, hell, he used a lot of those stuff from the academy's laboratory when he was a kid. But this time, it was something of an entirely different kind.

Inside the thinly secured pockets of the bag were thin and long glass vials. Rubber corks were used to secure its volatile content from spilling, ultimately prevent the air around him from exploding. There were thirty of these vials, all of them showing the curious purple liquid that had taken over the vials' space.

Elias was one of the few mages he knew who was handy when it came to alchemy, although the guy was clearly not one - something the man admitted himself. And he's also one of the FEW mages that wouldn't attack him on sight. The guy was reserved and always kept to himself. Their previous transactions consisted mostly of him doing the talking and Naruto couldn't say he hated that.

They met in a particular coffee shop somewhere in Western Ireland - Athenry if he recalled correctly, but that's not important. Right now, he's in Elia's Atelier which was in the same region, but only a different dimensional plane.

Thank the Log for Kamui…

"If you don't mind me asking… just how are you hoping to use these things?" Elias asked.

This prompted Naruto to look at the tall, talking wendigo-like being. It's the first time the guy showed any curiosity about what he did with the wares he bought from him.

"Honestly, aside from tossing them at my enemies and watch them combust in a fiery explosion? I use them as traps." The whiskered blonde said in a nonchalant manner while shrugging his shoulders.

"You _throw_ them at people?"

"Yup."

"...one of those things have the explosive power equivalent to at least twenty tonnes of TNT and you're telling me you pelt these things on your enemies' face?"

Naruto gave Elias a strange look. One that screamed, 'What, you're not supposed to?'

"...now I know why the church issued a flee on sight order for you." Elias finally sighed. "I can give you a reagent that will… _indulge_ you in your antics if you want."

"Heh, thanks."

With that said, Elias went to retrieve the aforementioned item, lining it up together with the rest of the vials

"So, will this be all?"

Naruto propped his arms on the counter, nodding. "Yeah, this'll be all."

Elias showed no reaction to the blonde's dismissive tone, but he knew that something was up. Sociable he might not be, he was at least observant enough to notice the drop in mood in his normally brash and hard headed customer.

"Something troubling you, Naruto?"

Looking up, Naruto gave Elias a long stare. The blonde sighed, shoulders visibly sagging while his head lowered. "You can say that… but I'm not sure if I can share it all willy-nilly."

"Great men are bound to have greater problems, or so I've heard."

Naruto did not take the statement as a compliment, knowing how subtle and dry Elias' humor could be. Rolling his eyes, Naruto scoffed.

"The sick thing is, it's not only my problem, Elias."

Elias did not say anything to that.

"When it's the end of the world, it's not only one man's dilemma now is it?" said Naruto to Elias hollowly.

Elias brought his gloved hand and perched his elongated jaws upon it. "That… is a concern." The quiet man said. "No wonder I have been seeing less of them nowadays…"

Elias was talking about sprites; or any creatures that were magic in origins. These creatures were sensitive when it came to nature or anything related to nature. But this meant that humanity's eventual demise was something Gaia well aware of.

Elias observed the blonde's expression. He could tell that he was deep in thoughts, but there were hints of pensive wandering in those eyes.

"...god damn it."

"What is it?"

The blonde rolled the bag of vials close, strapping the buckles to secure it from dropping anything. He put on his coat, straightening it to fit his posture. His movements were hasty, even as he went and carry both his suitcase and the bag in his arms.

"If my hunch about this whole upcoming shitstorm is correct, then I might just have to put in a lot more effort into this than I had initially planned."

Elias then began to understand what the blonde was trying to say. He knew of the reclusive nature of the blonde, him being at odds with both the Mages Association and the Church, it's hard to not be. If putting more effort meant exposing himself to both parties, then Elias understood why the blonde was troubled.

"You look too calm for someone who's just found out that the world he's living in is about to end, Elias. What are your thoughts about this?" asked the blue eyed blonde.

"I'm conflicted." responded the magus from behind the counter. "As a being which is both fae and human, I found the fact to be alarming. But as a person… I dislike the idea even more… as if I'm compelled to do something about it."

"So… are you going to?"

"I don't know, will you?"

They ended their conversation in silence, pausing, as the world around them revolved. Naruto was not surprised by Elias' answer. In fact, he could say that he expected it. But he had an answer to Elias' question.

"I will."

If Elias was surprised, he did not show it. His canine skull for a head did a good job at hiding it.

"But even I know I'm not going to get far if I do this alone… but I don't feel like dragging people along with me or having the same thing done to me." sighed the man.

"Hmm… not all of us gets to choose the way we want things to go."

That's probably one of the wisest things he had heard come out of Elias' mouth.

"Well, anyway," hefting his luggage, the blonde looked ready to leave. "I suppose I better get going now… got a plane to catch and all that." He turned on his heels, confirming his leaving. But not before turning his head to say one last thing.

"This may be the last time we ever get to talk, Elias… so I wish you luck in your future endeavor, Child of Thorn." If he had a hat on him, he'd tip it.

With those last words, he walked towards the door, palms grasping the handle of the door.

"Oh, and I guess I'll just take these then. For free."

Just like that, he walked outside, closing the door behind him.

With the blonde out of the area, Elias let out a long sigh.

* * *

"You are the most frustrating and infuriating person I have ever known."

Barthomeloi Lorelei considered herself many things.

An exceptional magus, the Vice Director of the Mage's Association and many more. It was an indisputable fact that she was one of the strongest and most prominent figure in the magi community; hell, she's called The Queen of Clocktower London for heaven's sake. This meant that people either respect or fear her and usually it's a healthy combination of both.

Her strict demeanor and hard-boiled nature when it came to authority was absolute, and a lot of magi knew this and respected, and feared, her for this. Naturally, knowing the type of person she was, it wouldn't make much sense for anyone for that matter to just barge into her office in the Clocktower as if it's some sort of interning deposit.

"Ah, but you do _know_ me."

Never in her whole life had ever wanted to wipe a smile out of a person's face before other than that man Zelretch.

The ponytailed Vice Director squeezed her temples with two of her fingers, uncaring whether the action would leave a permanent mark or not. She glared intensely at the blonde sitting on the sofa opposite of her, feeling even more agitated by the second.

If she could, she'd want nothing more but to see that face of his come crashing down to the marble floors of her office. She could try, of course.

"So… what do you want? I'm surprised they let you in." Lorelei made a mental reminder to talk with whoever was in charge with security later. "This section of the Clocktower is off limits to outsiders. I should have you thrown out of here before you even enter my office, Uzumaki."

The man crossed his legs, aggravating her even further, but she'd be damn if she fell for his provocations. Fortunately, years of having to deal with Zelretch gave her a little bit of immunity to this kind of behavior… didn't mean she tolerate it.

"I'm afraid you'll have let it slide this time, Miss Vice Director." He inserted his hand into the pocket compartment of his coat, pulling out a rectangular white slip of envelope. "I'm here on a more… serious note."

The envelope caught on fire while being held within the gaps of his fingers, but Lorelei was not alarmed. As the flame consumed the paper, its ashes and burnt compound began to re-materialize on the table in front of her. Reaching, she picked up the envelope and wasted no time in unsealing it.

"Zelretch… he met you?" asked the Vice Director with her naturally rigid voice.

"Yeah. Two days ago." answered the blonde off handedly. He observed as the woman sitting opposite of him finished reading the letter and the she gave off the impression that she wasn't impressed, much less satisfied, with the contents.

"Look, I know that this might look downright inconceivable… but I have to let you know that my intention is only one thing; and that's to secure a future for this planet."

The rising of eyebrow from Lorelei's part told him that she was still not convinced.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful for the people of Chaldea… but who are they to take matters into their own hands?" Asked the blonde. "Something like the end of the world should be made known to people; not all people, but the right people."

"We did make it known to the 'right people'… as you've crudely pointed out."

Naruto looked taken aback. And he felt offended.

"What? Are you trying to tell me that I am not one of these 'right people'? After all those times of trying to detain me, all those years of playing cat and mouse, you didn't even bother telling me that the world is ending? Just how heartless are you, Miss Vice Director?"

Lorelei sucked in air, and it was the only thing that kept her from inflicting pain to the blonde.

Seeing how aggravated the woman was becoming, the blonde decided to drop his act before she decided that it was finally time to punt him.

"But-"

Lorelei glared straight into the man's eyes.

"-I know that Zelretch's words alone won't be enough to convince you." He brought forth the hardcase suitcase he had with him and placed it on the table in front of her. "So, I brought you a little gift."

The alarms in Lorelei's head went off the moment he placed his suitcase on the table.

Much like Zelretch, she hardly knew the man. But she knew the blonde's antics and behavior from previous encounters of her people. Even from back then. Her own gut was telling her that she should not even think of opening the suitcase, much less accept it. Eyeing the blonde, she began analyzing him for any signs of lies.

The ability came with the job and her own past experience. Being the Vice Director of the Mage's Association, it's a very helpful skill to have; a skill that she had to rely on for a surprising amount of time even until now. Despite her best effort, she could not detect any. She was unsure whether it's a form of buff he had afflicted upon himself that managed to deter her ability to recognize lies or the man was in fact not lying.

In the end, against her own judgement, she reached for the suitcase.

Undoing the metal inline clasp of the suitcase, she slowly raised what now had become the lid of the suitcase open. This man had better not attempt to gift her with money, who does he think she i-

"...t-this is…!"

Smirking, the blonde took pleasure on being able to see the look on the Vice Director's face.

He got her now.

"Yes, it is 'it'." The blonde confirmed in his borderline uninterested tone, though he still showed clear amusement at seeing her acting uncharacteristically.

He traveled a lot, both in the normal sense and the abnormal one. Acquiring the item he had gifted to Lorelei required him to do the latter, since it was not something one could find in this time-plane. Well, this particular item used to exist at some point in this world, but it was confirmed to be both destroyed and lost. Which made acquiring it to be an abnormal pain on the ass for him since he had no clue where to find it.

But, his luck struck gold.

Yes, leave it all to his luck to benefit him now in the future.

During one of his travels to a different time-plane, he found out that the people that used the damn thing still existed, and they were still using it actively. He was intrigued since he didn't get to stumble into such a unique item that often, especially after knowing that it was destroyed in all possible plane of existence.

Unfortunately, the original owner of the thing was dead. Hell, he found the damn thing still within its owner's hands after he got murdered by a vampire, who wasn't all that strong in the first place.

"A-A Combat Cross…! H-How?!"

Ah yes, the thing's name was intimidating enough to make the heretic in him squirm in discomfort.

"How did you obtain such an item?!" demanded the Vice Director, showing an uncharacteristic burst of aggressiveness, a huge contrast to her calm and composed demeanor. "These things were thought to be lost and destroyed… not even the church could replicate the original few…"

"Let's just say that I was lucky enough to stumble upon it." Very lucky.

Her eyes were still glaring at the man, showing him signs of distrust and complete doubt to his answer. She had yet to touch the trinket he had brought for her, fearing that it might be some sort of trick from the man; knowing that he wasn't above such things.

Now getting annoyed at her persistence, Naruto sighed.

"Look, Lorelei, can we just get this over with? My intentions are clear; I only want to help this Chaldea organization with their mission on securing humanity's future. I probably should tell you this earlier, but even Zelretch himself was unsure of what to do; if that means we're not fucked then I don't know what will."

But he couldn't blame her. Oh no he couldn't.

He came here, even if his methods were questionable in the least, expecting to get thrown out even before she would consider talking to him; or maybe even worse and have a group of Enforcers sicced at him. But no, that did not happen. Lorelei was willing to talk to him, despite knowing how much she doubt and distrust him.

"A person like you working together? With mages?" pointed the woman, having recovered from her initial reaction.

"Yes." The blonde returned her question with a glare. "Believe it or not, I used to work with people; lead them even. But I don't think I'll be doing any leading or anything of that nature… unless it's really required to." His eyes softened. "You can consider me a third party or something, hell, even a mercenary would do."

Raising an eyebrow, she found the use of the word to be rather odd. She knew how reclusive the man was. Though a few names came to mind, she was more surprised to see him so willing-

"What do you hope to gain from this, Uzumaki?"

"Wha?" He stared at her, eyes wide and mouth open and the look of disbelief was plastered on his face. _"Excuse me?"_

Lorelei did not budge. She showed no emotions or any particular shift in her features. "I need to know why one of the most mysterious figure to the Magi community decided that it was time to come out of his hole and help around." She gave him a very cold glare. "It's not of your concern."

" _Excuse me?"_

" _Just answer me you dumb blonde!"_

Rather than being overwhelmed by the outburst he chose to ignore it.

And he looked angry.

"Hey, since when have saving the world been a Magi-only thing, huh? What, you think that just because I'm not a magus I can't do that, huh?" The blonde also looked to be at the end of his fuse. "I came here offering help and you're saying that it's not my concern? _Not my concern?!"_

She was not surprised by the exasperation in his tone, but she was still alarmed. This was the same man famous for sending back most of the Association's Enforcers in a body bag and had been doing so until just recently. She had read the reports and witnessed first hand of what the blonde could do with his unique powers. Powers - she said - not magecraft.

She heard the man audibly seething as he too attempted to reign in his anger. Lorelei straightened her composure too, realizing how heated things were getting.

"Maybe-" he started, taking a deep intake of air before speaking. "-we got off at the wrong foot, Miss Vice Director." He directed his gaze at her, forcing her eyes to meet his.

"If I cannot convince you of my intentions, then at least know that I won't be any threat to you or your association." He firmly said. "However, should you be any threat to me… let's just say that I will no longer hesitate."

He paused.

"This is not a threat on my part, it's a promise from me."

His words sounded convincing, Lorelei wouldn't deny it. She did not doubt his intentions. He took great risks into approaching her directly, even brazen enough to sit opposite of her and hold an argument with her; and that alone was enough to convince her. But she still could not understand his being here.

Why?

"Why does saving the world matter to you, Uzumaki?" Lorelei asked, although not with the same ice cold disposition like before.

The blonde felt his body frozen, becoming rigid; even his own breathing would not allow the most minimal of movement.

"It's true that the survival of the world is not just the concern of the magi community… but why does it concern you? You specifically, someone who had been keeping to himself for so many, many years… what possessed you to suddenly care?"

But her shots did not stop there.

"Do not bother bringing out silly and superficial reasons like doing it for yourself… because if you are, then you would not have bothered seeking out Chaldea. And what you're essentially doing right now, it's more than just trying to convince me to lay off your back."

He still did not answer her.

"You want to save the world, but you don't have a reason as to why." The Vice Director pointed with a vindictive tone. "Or do you honestly think that you are above reason, Uzumaki?"

He did not answer her, but he did allow himself to raise his head; just so that their eyes could meet. She's challenging him and he was not sure whether or not he should comply. What she had said was true; there was no need for him to involve himself with Chaldea if his sole intent was to prevent the upcoming disaster. He could argue that he needed intel or insight regarding the matter and that Chaldea was the only organization that could supply him with such things, but that would be too roundabout; Lorelei was just as straightforward as he was stubborn.

"I…"

Should he tell her? Should he? Did he even have an answer in the first place?

And even if he did have one… would he?

"I don't want people to die."

Lorelei… wasn't expecting that. Her eyebrow creased in genuine confusion, cluelessness and surprise evident on her steely eyes.

"And most importantly… I'm tired."

Again, she was not expecting that answer. She honestly expected him to brush her off and proceed with his initial plan anyway, not like she could do anything if he chose to aid Chaldea anyway… at least not officially she couldn't. Chaldea was no longer the Association's exclusive organization, it was now a UN sanctioned organization with its own body of administrators and beauro; it's strong enough to constitute itself as an entire branch in itself.

"I'm tired of hearing these… prophecies. I'm tired of them." His voice was hollow, almost as if he had lost the concept of hope.

"And I hate not being able to do anything about it."

His eyes, seemingly to have regained a brand new vigor, sparked for a moment. They changed colors, a feat that was definitely unnatural and uncommon. If it was just something like changing the color of his eyes for the sake of changing the color itself, then maybe she would not be so alarmed.

But this man sitting in front of her… he had just activated some sort of Mystic Eyes.

Instinctively, Lorelei shielded her vision quickly with her arm.

"No need for that, I told you I won't threaten you." Murmured the blonde man sitting across the table.

He said that, yet she could not help but feel a little nervous. As much as she was confident in her abilities, this was still a man with the highest form of sealing designation order placed on him and someone who the Church would purposefully avoid.

Even Zelretch himself respected him to a point.

It was unlike any of the Mystic Eyes she had heard or know of. Mismatched as they were, they all but share a similar feature; spirals.

A shape not many could think off from the top of their head yet a symbol that was eternally present in everyday human life and even concepts. The right eye was ghastly purple in color, with its rippling pattern showing prominently and six commas forming a downwards triangle in a symmetrical fashion. While the left one was much more sinister, with it being prominently red in color, with the similar rippling pattern but there were nine commas for each ring, arranged appropriately.

He blinked, and Lorelei watched as he gazed at her with those eyes. The very action of staring itself had become something that caused her to shiver, she could feel something… raw and strange about those eyes of his.

"I am not above reason." He suddenly spoke, shaking Lorelei off from her thoughts. "But I am above inactivity at the face of adversity." He told her.

"You will not stop me from trying to protect the world I love, Lorelei."

His statement rang in her head.

Closing her eyes, Lorelei nodded, almost as if she had accepted his answer. Once she had her moment, she opened them again.

"Love… is it?"

For a moment, it seemed that her tone faltered; losing its typical stoic edge. For a moment, she allowed herself to be… human.

To be herself. Lorelei.

Not a Barthomeloi… but Lorelei.

"Very well. If that is your reason." uttered the woman. "It's not like there is anything we can do to stop you anyway…"

And it's not like she's in a position to say who got to join or not join Chaldea in the first place.

"I will hold a gathering with the Enforcers in regards to your request… but I cannot guarantee a permanent result." The way Lorelei said it made Naruto feel a little bit prickly around the neck. "Some of them have take it upon themselves to claim you, and I acknowledge competitiveness within my ranks."

He felt like he had achieved what he came here for, but after hearing that, his composure fell and his eyes faded to their cerulean color.

"Now that's just mean, Lorelei."

* * *

" **So, kid… got everything with you?"**

He'd argue about being able to sort things out himself, but Kurama's good memory had proved to be useful on several occasions in the past. However, he was confident that he had it all in him today. Besides, there was really no need to worry when he could just open up a pocket dimension and portals and all that.

He thought about his meeting Lorelei the other night and had been reflecting on it ever since then. He was not above reason. Oh no. The problem was, he was unsure himself.

Saving the world… the last time he tried to do that, he failed. And he had to pay the price… they all had to. Him? He was more fortunate, but the thousands of people who fought and bled through those days… they were nothing more than names and memories now; maybe even less, because his Era was long forgotten.

His world was forgotten.

This new one… this new world… he did not want a repeat of what happened. This world still had hope and people willing to fight for its survival. And that was very, very relieving. Faced with extinction, these people chose to fight and stand against the cruel prophecy imposed upon them by fate, how could he not respect that?

" **I told you kid, no matter how long you seclude yourself and even if you keep on telling yourself that you won't fight… you'll still have to do it in the end anyways."**

Sighing in exasperation, he hated to admit that Kurama's right.

To fight was his life, no matter how much he hated shedding blood, it would always be a part of his life. And he knew that, with time, things would only get tougher… bloodier. The battle would always be tougher, and the stakes would be higher. The odds might seem slimmer… but in return, he, too, would be stronger.

Faster.

Smarter.

Better.

"I know Kurama…" He sighed, shoulders shrugging. "You don't have to rub it all over my face."

He grinned. After a very long time, his azure eyes shined in nostalgic determination.

Walking alone, treading through hazardous blizzard and snow, he stood out amongst the wintery white blanket on which his feet were trudging through. A lone, worn out, red scarf was tied around his neck; shielding the exposed area from the cold. Despite it being the only that separated his skin from the unforgiving cold, he could feel warmth resonating from it.

' _Hinata… are you watching me?'_

Not expecting an answer, he continued on, marching through the snow dressed in nothing but his regular combination of slacks and long sleeved shirt, as well as a coat and scarf.

"It will be hard, it won't be easy… hell, it'll be harder knowing my reputation with the magi."

" **Since when has that stopped you, huh, Naruto?"**

A different voice echoed from inside his very being. A familiar voice that brought a smile to his face.

"Gyuki." Acknowledged the blonde. "Are the rest of you there?"

" **Hah, we couldn't get out if we want to, Son of Man."** Shukaku. **"But it's not like we see a reason to do so in the first place."**

" **No matter what happens, we'll always be here, Naruto-dono."** Kokuou.

" **Purrr… we've our fair share of rest, haven't we? I think it's the perfect time for a change of scenery."** Matatabi.

" **...we will be here. We are with you, Chosen of Rikudo."** Isobu.

" **Be it the Shinigami's belly itself or even the Eight Million Gods' wrath... we won't back down, Naruto."** Son Goku.

" **I am with Son at this, Naruto. We've been lucky all this time and it won't hurt to count on Lady Luck some more!"** Chomei.

" **Y'er a tough lad, Naruto. I'm betting ye'r itching for action, hell, we all do inni't right?"** Saiken.

" **Heh… now the whole gang's here."** Kurama chuckled. **"But I agree with them too, Naruto. It's been far too long ever since any of us get to stretch our legs… uh… no offense, Saiken."**

" **None taken, Ku."**

" **And, not to mention, you're stingy too when it comes to letting us out of here."**

"Hah." scoffed Naruto. "And risk having you guys exposed by magi? No thanks."

" **Aww, why not? We can just bury them with my sand before they can even run!"**

"No, Shukaku." barked the blonde. "And remember the last time I let Saiken out, huh? There's a whole trench in the Pacific to remind us."

" **...sorry, I was too… excited."**

From that point onwards, his mind became a lounge spot for the beasts that resided within him. He quipped into their conversation every so often, while his feet continued to take him to his destination. It was supposed to be a short hike away from here. He didn't mind the journey, it helped set his mind at ease.

Of course, he used Kamui to teleport himself to Antarctica. What, you think he'd waste money for a once in a few months ticket for an icebreaker ship to take him to Antarctica? Hell no.

He, all by himself, trekked through the steep cliff side and ravines; using only his two hands and feet - with the help of chakra - to make his way towards his destination. For him, it's actually easier done than said. With every step, every stone he passed… his body was being rejuvenated. Sage Mode was not activated, but he could feel his body being empowered by the cold Antarctic wind.

He climbed up a steep cliff, doing so with minor difficulty. Hefting himself up to his feet, Naruto basked underneath the rare ray of sunlight managed to pierce through the cloudy southern skies. Looking up, he shielded his eyes from the opposing wind, and barely able to catch a glimpse of what lies ahead.

"There it is… huh, smart move for them." He murmured with a hint of impression. "You won't exactly run out of space if you make the entire mountain as your base, hidden in plain sight too. Would help deter mages if only the barriers casted around the damn thing weren't so obvious." he griped at the end.

" **A formidable defense… but it's nothing compared to the ones we've seen before."** Saiken commented.

"Yes, because it's not meant to be defensive in the literal sense." Naruto corrected. "Magi set up barriers to deter trespassers, to warn them of presences and even to flat out make people who stumbled upon them unconscious."

The blonde squinted his eyes. "This one… does the former two. Shouldn't affect us at all." He murmured. "But it wouldn't hurt to be a little cautious. Kurama, let me know if anything bad is gonna happen."

" **Heh, on it."**

Taking a deep breath of air, he let himself be overcome by the surging flurry of power.

He saw gold.

Golden, heatless, flames combusting right out of his very self. The feeling of the cold was suddenly lost to him, as if he had never felt cold in the first place. There was no heat, yet there was warmth. The flaming golden shroud like aura surrounding his form, covering him in brilliance. His torso, where the coat and shirt were, now bore a spiral like design with unfamiliar Fuin symbols circling the design. There were also the ever so present black lines along the contours of his body, also altering the intensity of his whisker marks; making them similar to three horizontal black lines.

His eyes also changed. They were no longer blue, but orange.

"This should let them know I'm here…"

" **You did tell them that you're coming, right?"**

"Don't worry, I did." Winked the blonde to no one aside from the ones inside his soul. "I'm not that cruel, Kurama." Then, his eyebrows creased. "Oh, there they are now. Fast response time, I'm impressed."

Over at the distance, three helicopters could be seen flying at the same altitude approaching his location. He stood there with hands akimbo. With how bright he's shining, there's no need for signaling.

Since he was standing on top of a cliff with both ends leading towards a steep fall, there's no way for the helis to land. Which was why once one of them was close enough, they dropped down a ladder. He dispelled his cloak as he climbed; no need to keep these guys on their toes any further.

He was helped inside the helicopter by a person dressed in winter camo military fatigues and an operator's vest and kit. He also wore a ballistic helmet with its internalized communications device active judging from the looks of it.

"Are you Mister Uzumaki?!" shouted the security personnel. He had to, due to the noise that the rotors make.

"Yeah!"

"Welcome aboard, sir! We've been expecting you!"

Naruto smiled in response. _'Oh Lorelei, I know that you're a big softy underneath all that front.'_

He got himself settled inside the fuselage, where three other security personnel were present to brief him of the current situation.

" _Pilots we are RTB, V.I.P picked up and ready to go."_

Naruto could hear the pilot's words from the communications headset given to him by one of the security present.

' _Pssh, VIP…'_

As the helicopters made their way back to headquarters, Naruto listened in to what the Chaldea staff member had to say.

"It's good that you're not lost sir, but why didn't you just let one of our boys fly you to base from the checkpoint?!" asked the man.

"I'd rather have you folks know it's me directly!" responded Naruto with his voice raised over the sound of helicopter rotors. "Wouldn't want your men down there to make things complicated for me!"

"Oh you did let us know it's you, alright! Command said they felt that energy spike all the way from HQ! And they're _inside_ a mountain!"

Naruto laughed heartily.

* * *

 **So, this story is a replacement for the previous teaser I posted a while back. Don't worry, I intend to continue this; but only if this gets attention.**

 **Now, before I say anything else: I would like to warn all of you that I am going to take a LOT of 'artistic liberties' in this story. Yes, I know that most of you guys don't like that in a story, and yes, I might have just offended the Nasuverse fanboys out there, but I don't care.**

 **I just want to write this story. The idea occurred to me, and I felt the need to write it down. The reason why I bother posting it on FF is because I think it'd be okay to share it to you guys. So if you guys find it uncomfortable that I'm not sticking to canon, be it in Naruto-verse or Nasuverse, I'm just going to apologize and say that what will be, will be.**

 **With that said, hope you guys can get the references I've placed in here and if you don't, don't worry; it probably just means that I've spent a loooot of time on the internet.**

 **With peace,**

 **Rain**


	2. Should I stay or should I go?

**Chapter's title brought to you by The Clash.**

* * *

It took a lot of effort to surprise him.

He'd like to think that he had seen most of both the good and bad things that life had to offer. Naturally, this meant him keeping a straight face at whatever technological advancements, magic, super powers and people he would meet.

But he had to admit, so far, he had been nothing short of amazed and impressed of what he was seeing.

"It is truly a marvel how far we've come in terms of technology and discoveries. Everything you see here…"

And his guide was not shy to elaborate things further for him. He admired her dedication to her job, but he had to be honest; the one sided talking was getting annoying.

' _Look at me… old, miserable and crabby… my, if Sasuke was here…'_ He mentally sighed to himself. In response, some of the Bijuu voiced their amusement by chuckling. _'Oh give me a break…'_

He would not give into them. He did not want the guide to suspect him of being mentally unstable and have the other staff members here observe him even closer. They have had their eyes on him from the moment he landed on the hangar. Men and women in uniform with radios and security gear were everywhere, some were even with him right now as he was being guided.

But he had nothing to worry about. In fact, as it stood, these people were the ones on edge, standing at the tip of their toes. He saw no reason to blame them. It must have been a surprise for them to receive a direct message from the Clocktower about someone like him arriving to their headquarters in less than a week.

And it's not like he had anything to complain about, so far. He'd been treated worse by even worse hosts before, but he would reserve his judgements later on.

The person acting as his tour guide did not seem to be on edge as the others they walked pass by. In fact, he would dare say that she was happy. Chirpy, even. A lovely girl. No older than twenty, appeared to be of European origins… Baltic, probably, judging from the accented English. She had blonde hair and light green eyes, average height which was only enforced by the heeled boots she was wearing. The insignia on her uniform bore the colors of this organization, as well as its logo.

He figured. This organization's full name was Chaldea Security Organization, after all. Security. That would explain why everything was… militaristic.

Prior teleporting himself to Antarctica, he had done some minor research; mostly the well known stuffs. To the world, Chaldea Security Organization was one of the many UN backed organizations funded to further benefit the development of mankind, but not much was really known about them. To magi, however, it was a big wig organization set up by this bloke from the Clocktower dedicated to prevent the extinction of mankind.

Now, did that mean that these people have had an idea that the world would end from all the way back then and still hadn't say anything about it? Probably. Yes, yes, there's always the reason of confidentiality; keeping public unrest ad all that, but fuck that reason.

He mostly tuned his guide's words out, seeing as she would not stop going on and on about how this place was worth every penny and dime it costed into building it.

"Where are you taking me, if I may ask?" he broke the silence by asking his guide a question. He figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, especially with how long they'd been walking.

"We are proceeding to the command room where several others are waiting for you." The girl was polite enough to offer him a smile along with that answer.

Returning her smile, he then kept to himself once again, preferring to let the rest of the trip continue with silence.

Their walk eventually led them through a large automated sliding door which opened once the guide was within its vicinity. Some sort of code reading equipment of some sort. The guards escorting them did not enter, rather, they dismissed themselves moments before he and the guide reached the door.

Upon entry, there was no hallway to lead him to the main chamber of this room; it was straightforward. The first thing that greeted him was this large, blue orb in the middle of the room. It was big, but it's not like he hadn't handle bigger things before. The chamber was large, designed to replicate a congress conference room; except there were balconies with techies inside tinkering with consoles and other sort of electronic interface hardwares.

However, none caught his attention like the handful number of heads waiting for him.

"We've reached our destination, mister Uzumaki." His guide informed him, standing straight with her legs within touching distance. "Excuse me." She did a small bow before excusing herself out of the chamber, leaving behind a faint waft of her lavender scented perfume for him to smell.

He should've asked for her name… oh well.

' _Now… onto more pressing matters…'_

He flexed his neck towards the awaiting audience, his body following in suit. There were four people standing in wait, though one of them was already approaching him.

White hair? He'd seen stranger colors before, but those eyes… they burn. A young woman, no older than twenty, approached him. She was dressed in a formal attire which consisted of a dress, vest and coat combo. The cuffs of her attire were detailed with fancy stitches and her hair, with some stray strands jutting out, was braided to give her a more serious look. Though, in his opinion, if she wanted to go for a serious look, the scowl on her face did a better job.

"Welcome." Despite her unfriendly and borderline intimidating presence and looks, she sounded polite, but Naruto knew that it was only out of necessity. "We were told by mistress Barthomeloi herself that we'd have an extra addition to our cause…"

Adjusting his collar, Naruto crossed his arms. "And I hope there's nothing wrong with that?" he questioned. "Or is it the other way?"

The woman shook her head, her stern demeanor faltering to show him the expression of someone who had been through countless nights without the slightest wink of sleep.

"Oh no, in fact, it's the opposite." Now that he'd taken a good look, almost all of them were restless. "Ah, but my apologies… it seems that I've forgotten to introduce myself."

She did curt bow, just enough to make her look polite.

"My name is Olgamarie Animusphere, the acting director of Chaldea Security Organization."

Upon the introduction, one of Naruto's eyebrows arched in a curve.

Olga, seeing the look of realization dawning upon his face, looked rather irritated. "Yes, is there anything you'd like to ask me?"

Realizing that he had been rather… rude, for the lack of better terms, the blonde raised his hand in defence. "Oh, nothing of the sort." the blonde said.

Then he continued. "It seems that my… _sources_ were outdated. Although I'll admit, I did not do a lot of research prior coming here… most of what I know could be considered surface level."

Hearing his explanation caused Olga's glare softened. "...I see." she faux coughed, continuing the conversation. "In any case, I welcome you to Chaldea, mister Uzumaki Naruto."

She then stepped aside, allowing his focus to shift to the others standing with her.

"These are some of our staffs, they should be able to help you get to know the facility better." Olga gave one of the staff members, a tall man wearing a lab coat, a nod. She then shifted her attention back to him. "I'm afraid I have other matters that needs attending, please, direct all your questions to the doctor here; he'll be able to answer most of your questions."

Rather briskly, she made her way towards the door; her exit escorted by two security personnel in automatic weapons and load bearing vests. Her form vanished into the hallways outside, leaving behind nothing but her now cold footsteps.

' _Huh, poor girl's had a rough week… month.'_ Naruto sympathized, he really did. Judging from her name, she must be related to the guy who founded the organization… Marisbury Animusphere. His daughter, perhaps? If so, was he…?

"I apologize for the director's… behavior," a man's voice chuckled nervously, says, "we've had a difficult month… err… months and we're still recovering in a lot of ways…"

It was not hard to catch the despair hidden within the seams of his sentences, and he was not sure whether he should pry or leave things as they were. But the man's remorseful expression was gone in a blink of an eye, faster than even Hiraishin could ever make him.

"We've been expecting you. Although it might sound a little bit odd to say that since it's been, what, a day or two when they told us that you are coming."

This doctor fellow didn't really give off the impression of a… well… doctor. Though he shouldn't be shallow, he could not help but notice that he was young. Yes, not all doctors were old, but could you blame him? The way he spoke lacked that distinctive methodical and unflappable register that most doctor would assume when talking to people. The nervous smile he had on his face did not help convince Naruto either.

But where the eyes failed, the nose prevailed.

His scent reminded Naruto of hospitals, or at least medical wards. Iodoform was an effective disinfectant, as someone who had enough experience at hospitals, he was familiar enough to recognize the compound by scent alone.

The doctor ran his gloved hand through his salmon colored hair, which was held together in a messy ponytail that created the illusion of fluffiness. Combined with the color, Naruto would not be surprised if he had 'cotton candy' for a nickname. His soft beryl colored eyes were shallow upon first glance, but they showed the same telltale signs of fatigue and stress as the girl from before.

"I am Romani Archaman, the head of the medical staffs here in Chaldea. The people call me doctor, but I'd be fine with just Roman." Despite the friendliness, he did not offer a handshake. Naruto noticed this. "I'd like you to meet two members of our main roster,"

The good doctor stepped aside, giving Naruto a clear view of his potential future co-worker.

Two girls, different in looks and origins.

He found his eyes naturally focusing on the one dressed in white. Her hair was the sole reason for this, it being a color that he fancied. It was messy, but not in the disheveled sense, more like natural. It was long and had to be kept in a side short ponytail, although not a lot of effort was made to keep it tidy from the looks of it… judging from the stray strand of cowlick sticking out of her hair. Her eyes were like amber, and they told him a tale of someone who was green and tender footed in the face of adversity.

' _So young…'_

He was willing to bet that, whoever she was, this precious young girl, got dragged up into all of this.

...or it could be far more tragic than that.

Either way, he was not going to make his assumptions known.

The next girl, however, wasn't… exactly the same as the other. They're both lovely girls, he's sure, beautiful ones too, but she was giving off a different air. As far as superficiality went, she had shoulder length purple hair - a very light purple at that - and porcelain white skin. It was uneasy for him since it reminded him of the Lunarians he was so familiar with and her eyes did not help, them being a deep purple.

She wore glasses and it overlayed the pensive facade that was her face. Either she was aloof or just reserving herself in his presence, he did not know. Guess he would have to find out later.

"C'mon girls, introduce yourself."

The one with the orange hair stepped forward, braving a megawatt smile.

"Nice to meet you, my name's Ritsuka Fujimaru!" After the brief introduction, her smile somehow appeared dampened, yet still present for him to see. "I'm the current master in charge of the servant division."

She spoke with flare and determination and he had to admit, after years of developing a pessimistic side, it was refreshing to say the least. He returned her bold greeting with a large smile of his own, he felt his cheek muscles stretching to form the gesture, straining as they attempted to do what they thought they could no longer do.

"Matthew Kyrielight." The small smile surprised him, if he had to be honest.

And Matthew? Who named a girl Matthew?

"I am more or less in the same department as senpai." said the girl, but then, she realized how cryptic she might had sounded. "Ah, by senpai I meant Ritsuka-senpai over here." Matthew chuckled.

Huh, maybe he might've been wrong with his judgement after all.

Seeing as the girls have finished with their introductions, it was his turn to return the gesture.

"Name's Uzumaki Naruto. I don't know whether they informed you or not, but I am not a magus." He paused, letting the information sink in. "Nor do I possess the characteristics of one." He could already see the confusion surfacing on their faces, except the doctor's.

"But despite all of this, I still want to help Chaldea." He told them. "However, that doesn't mean that I'm not familiar with your kind. I've had a good couple hundred of years worth of experience under my belt dealing with you magi folks, so don't worry, I should be useful for something."

"Are you saying that you'll assume the position of a staff, mister Uzumaki?" Matthew - he's going to take some time getting used to call the sweet girl that - asked, her head tilted slightly ajar.

"I do not know." Naruto's eyes glanced over to the doctor. "I was hoping to leave the decision making part to anyone who is in charge and responsible for calling the shots around here. But, honestly," his smile turned sheepish, "I'd be happy to help in any way I can."

"I'm sure we'll have time to go over the specifics about your contribution to the organization later with the director." Roman interjected. Naruto noted that he looked awfully skittish, as if he was holding himself back from… something. "Well, since we didn't really schedule how things would go… I think we'll just wing it and conduct a tour of the facility right now!"

And so the tour began, but unlike the short one he had before, he had a feeling this one ought to be a little bit more informative.

* * *

The world was and had always been an infinite entity of mystery; this was a fact shared by many regardless of profession. Be it magus, acolytes, vampires, immortals… no one could truly comprehend how the world work and what made the laws that governed it what it was today.

Naturally, mystery provoked curiosity… and curiosity was the catalyst to potential discovery.

But to discover required work. Work. Time. And a god awful lot of time at that. This explained why it was natural for magus and the likes to lead such a reclusive lifestyle. For they sought knowledge, the discovery of the unknown and the truth that lay beyond…

The Root.

Akasha, some called it…

It's difficult to really dissect and explain, but the common knowledge to those who were aware was that it was a metaphysical plane outside the realm of worlds; akin to an empty space where both time and space were absent. Although calling it empty might be inaccurate. The damned place might be lacking in all things physical, but it was not truly empty.

Information, records of everything that was and will be, existed there. He liked to think of it as this arranged nexus of recorded history of everything that had ever existed, however, not limited to world, dimensions or realms. Once he found out more about the matter from Zelretch, he began to understood his being in this new world of his much clearer.

It was possible that the Root was responsible for him being here… Zelretch himself brought up that possibility and, despite all the reputation preceding the man, the bastard knew more about this stuff than he did. Didn't mean he trust him, of course, not with his life, at least. Regardless, the Root itself wasn't responsible for his… displacement entirely.

He, himself, had a part in it.

Eyes closed, he felt his body shivering as his mind began to wander through memories of a distant past.

" **Don't trouble yourself by thinking about the past, Naruto."** Kurama's voice echoed from within his soul. **"It would not do us - or you specifically - any good now that we're here."**

He willfully pulled himself away, before his mind could wander even deeper and lose itself within the memories he had been desperately trying to keep. He breathed out in relief, feeling his body relaxing after the self brought pressure.

"Thank you Kurama…" he whispered quietly.

"Hm, what was that?"

Not quiet enough, from the looks of it…

They had just finished the tour and he got to see most of what this facility had to offer. Right now, the doctor and the girls were leading him back to the command room. The director, miss Olgamarie, called for their presence earlier whilst he was being shown around the place. Looked like she was done with whatever business she had to attend to.

In the middle of their journey there, however, it seemed that his brain had decided that it was best to wander back and cause unwanted memories to resurface; something that Kurama warned him not to think about. He was not expecting anyone to hear him, so it surprised him.

"It's… nothing." He was good enough at lying that his words came out as natural. He wasn't sure whether it's something to be proud of or not… but he wouldn't deny its usefulness.

Fujimaru blinked, she had not noticed the blonde haired man's sorrowful tone. Seeing his reassuring smile, however, eased her curiosity. She too, then, gave him a smile of her own. One that was larger, brighter and-

" _Tou-chan!"_

Naruto clenched his eyes shut to a point where it hurt a little. He didn't dismiss the pain. Instead, he let it be. His chest felt heavy, to a point where it was hard for him to walk. But persistence took control and he managed to make it seem like nothing happened at all. The agonizing look on his face was, thankfully, unnoticed by everyone.

" **Naruto…"**

He swallowed the growing lump in his throat, brushing the sweat that had trickled down his forehead, stopped by his eyebrows. _'I'm fine, Kurama… I'm fine.'_ said the man through his connection with the beast.

He'd got to be better and focus on the task at hand.

' _There's no time losing yourself in the past, Naruto.'_ If he could, he'd slap himself. But he couldn't, not unless he wanted the doctor and the girls think he was some sort of crazy old man.

' _You're here to stay.'_

Doctor Roman, Matthew, Fujimaru and Naruto was greeted by the silver haired director back in the command room. The only difference was, unlike before, there was someone Naruto had yet to meet. Standing beside Olgamarie was a woman dressed in one of the most eye catching attire the blonde had ever seen.

Eye catching in the sense that it wouldn't take someone more than three seconds to notice that it was them.

A long haired brunette with a pair of green eyes and dressed in this mini-skirted red, blue and gold dress that screamed attention yet elegance at the same time. The puffiness of the sleeves reminded him of attires from the olden age, along with the long gloves and… was that an armguard? Cool. Her face was beauty in itself, and the way her hair framed her face… it reminded of something… or someone...

This new woman was carrying with her a large book, secured close with leather straps. She seemed to notice his presence, if the fact that she had been eyeing him from the moment he entered the room wasn't enough.

"Ah, Leona, you're here." Doctor Roman greeted the woman with such familiarity that it made Naruto assume that they're both very good friends. It seemed that he assumed correctly, this time. "We didn't see you while we're having the tour, looks like you got here first."

The woman, who the good doctor called Leona, smiled at the greeting. Her look turned slightly apologetic, but it did little to hamper her beauty.

"Heya Romani," The woman's voice silky smooth, but he could sense a glimmer of child-like mischief in it, "sorry, but I must've left earlier to help with calibrations here."

His eyes met her and he did not fail to notice the way they sparkle when they landed on him.

"Speaking of help, I see that our newest addition is here." She took a confident leap that immediately closed the distance between Naruto and herself. She began humming, he could hear her clearly as she was less than a meter away from him. "Yes, yes… just as I thought…"

Uncomfortable would not be enough of a word to describe what he was feeling right now. The blonde in the suit took a step back, unable to handle how this woman was treating him like he was the gallery's portrait of the week… with her disturbing humming and chin scratching and whatnot…

"Tell me," This Leona woman began, "was it true what they used to say about you? About how you used to send the church's Executors back to the Vatican in a coffin with their limbs bound, mouths gagged and the symbol of the beast inked onto their forehead?"

His blonde eyebrows creased upon the sudden questioning. He was not expecting this at all. Eyes turning to slits, he tilted his head in question, "Do I know you?"

The woman with the green eyes chuckled, shrugging her shoulders loosely. "Depends. How good is your general knowledge?"

He chose to entertain her, despite the curiosity. "Good enough." the blonde responded with a flat voice, while the others on the sidelines were watching the scene with varying degrees of amusement themselves.

"Really?" He felt like she was taunting him. With her right hand akimbo on her hip, the brunette beauty shot him a badgering look. "Then, how much do you know about paintings?"

Upon hearing the question, the flat look dropped, tumbled and rolled off the floor; replaced by a perfect mixture between disappointment and confusion. "I know enough to say that people who paint aren't the most stable of persons out there."

After hearing his answer, the woman let out a set of dry laughter. "I take offense to that."

"Oh?" A raised eyebrow. Was this woman a painter? If so, what did it have to do with him knowing her?

Then, she pulled out a pair of reading glasses from out of nowhere, placing it on her face before giving him one of the smuggest look anyone who wasn't an Uchiha had ever made before.

Of course, it was just an exaggeration.

"Rather than 'mentally unstable'," she did this very obnoxious gesture of touching the rims of her glasses with her finger, "I prefer the term genius. This is not something I label myself with, rather, it was the people who do so."

The man visibly grimaced at the way she spoke, although he hoped he's not making it too obvious.

"Yeaaaah?" The blonde's confusion was showing. He was still very lost. "But what does this have to do with you knowing me or vice versa, huh?" he asked. He's glad that he's already having a conversation with someone from Chaldea in less than a day after he'd set foot on the facility, but this was not how he had imagined things would go.

"I can answer that for you, mister Uzumaki." Fujimaru, who had been watching the entire exchange all this time, said through restrained laughter. She took a moment to settle herself first, before proceeding. "Are you familiar with the term Holy Grail War?"

...what?

His face indicated his surprise. He knew of magi and their fascination for the holy chalice, but what did it have to do with the end of the world? But, to answer the question, he nodded.

"Then, you must know that the system that governed the war allows for the summoning of Heroic Spirits?" asked Leona.

"Yes, although I was told that spirits or wraiths in general could be summoned."

Well, he wasn't exactly wrong.

"Let me introduce myself, then." Bowing in an extremely exaggerated manner that did nothing but show Naruto that this woman had got flare to share, Leona spoke, "I am Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci - or - Leonardo da Vinci, as I'm mostly known as." With a large smile on her face, she finished her introduction.

He be damned. He was not expecting this. Not even the Spanish Inquisition was expecting this, should they still, for whatever reason, exist in this day and age. He took a moment to further observe the woman standing in front of him, dressed in the very colorful dress and all. He was surprised, yes, but if the Holy Grail was related, then, this shouldn't be a surprise at all.

"Alright," the blonde said slowly, as if he was coming to accept the information that was thrown at his face, "still, that doesn't explain how you know about me."

"Ah," her tone took a chiding turn, "it seems that you've underestimated your own reputation even from back then, signore Uzumaki."

"From back then?" Matthew wondered out loud, confused of what da Vinci was insinuating.

"Yes, Mashu~"

Leona's, or, well, da Vinci's tone became sickeningly sweet; they all knew she's doing it on purpose, but to Naruto - who had only just been recently revealed the identity of said person - it was actually far more worse.

"Signore Uzumaki here existed even before Christ himself!"

Naruto tensed.

"And, based on the tight lipped rumors ongoing back then, he was probably involved during the Crusades in the Holy Land!"

Okay, now he was straight up sweating.

His reaction was transparent, seeing the varying degrees of expression on their faces made him sigh. He had to share these things at some point anyway. Leonardo, over here, just had to make it now of all times.

"It's… scary to know that the Mages Association know this much about me." Naruto said, shoulders sagging after having been made to, indirectly, reveal his past.

" **There's no use in denying anything. I suppose you haven't forgotten how much the importance of trust is in winning wars?"**

' _No, duh.'_ He rolled eyes, an action that the others noticed. _'Just shut it for a moment, you're distracting me, you furball!'_ He mentally cursed his chuckling companion as he pulled himself back to reality.

"Yes… what _signora Leona_ over here has said is… true, for the most part." He eyed the still smiling inventor with mild contempt, but confirming her statement regardless.

"The… reports failed to mention any of this." The director murmured just loud enough for them to hear. It seemed that she had been restraining herself with decorum all this time, however, she broke eventually. Releasing a groan, the young woman stomped her boot on the floor.

"This is…" She grumbled, wallowing lowly, "Do they not trust us anymore? Me?!"

Raising an eyebrow at the sudden outburst, Romani's awkward chuckling acted as an ice breaker to the suddenly tense atmosphere.

"A-Anyway, if you don't mind me asking, mister Uzumaki," Romani was desperate for the conversation to continue, it seemed he was not so eager on the idea of seeing the director angry. "How did you convince the Clocktower to send us a personal message about you coming here?"

"It wasn't simple." Naruto admitted with a huff. "Considering my reputation with you magi folks, I wasn't going to get anywhere by doing things by the books. So, I snuck in and had a private talk with the vice director herself."

"You snuck into the Clocktower?!" Pretty much everyone demanded.

"Yes." was the irritated reply. Rubbing his ringing ears - curse his old age - Naruto winced and recoiled from the outburst. "And, it turned out swell as you know it. But, as for how I managed to convince Lorelei to get her people off my arse while I'm here; let's just say that I have a friend in a high place." And a very pretty trinket to offer.

Some of the Chaldeans - Olgamarie especially - treated his answer with a huge dollop of suspicion. But they knew that getting everything from one conversation alone would not be possible.

"So both the magi and the church are still giving you a hard time 'till this day, huh, signore? Can't say I blame them." Shrugged the genius Italian inventor who literally everyone on earth had thought to be male.

"Why is that? Why do the Church and the Mages Association have such a hard on on this old man?" asked Ritsuka with her thumb gesturing towards the 'old man'.

' _O-Old man…?'_ One of Naruto's eyelids twitched at the term used to refer him. Ignoring the varying degree of laughter coming from his tenants, Naruto forced a strained smile.

"I can answer that…" To their surprise, it was Olgamarie who said this. "Everyone affiliated with the association was told of a mysterious figure with the highest sealing designation ever given to… anything. My family is not as involved as some others when it comes to that particular field, but we know enough that there exists a man with a sealing designation so high that they basically considered him to be the Holy Grail itself."

She was surprised when da Vinci revealed a slice of the man's history. It only further cemented why the association was so fixated on this man. But still, the association should had some clues, at least as much as the information da Vinci supplied them with. If so, they didn't tell her.

And that pissed her off. It meant that the association no longer trusted her and Chaldea as a whole, despite all of those reports and liaison efforts her people had made in the past.

Inhaling, she needed to after saying that much, Olgamarie directed a rather heated look at the blonde newcomer. "So long as you swear to obey all of my orders as Chaldea's ruling director and contribute to this organization as well as humanity, we won't have any problems."

It was amazing how those working at the bleachers could ignore a group of six people chattering as if they had the entire chamber all to themselves. It's either they're really focused on their work or Olgamarie had them on a very tight leash. And something's telling Naruto that it might just be the latter.

"I intend to do exactly those things you've mentioned, miss Animusphere."

Olgamarie's glare lingered, no doubt she still doubted him. Naruto felt miffed, but didn't say anything. He was getting the impression that Olgamarie wasn't the most… likeable person to be around and Romani dropped casual hints for him to pick up during his tour. But something's telling him there's more to her than just a short fuse inside a pretty box.

"However, I will need to know the full rundown of what happened here." said the suited blonde neutrally. "The doctor mentioned about having a few rough months… care to share?"

He saw the way they looked at each other, almost as if they're wordlessly deciding who's unlucky enough to recall the past memory. Romani was showing an uneasy smile, but deep inside Naruto could tell that he was having a hard time as the rest. Matthew was… silent. Way more silent than before and it made his earlier opinion of her conflict with what little snippets of her he'd seen. Ritsuka was the same, but her expression showed the most… sadness, guilt. Olgamarie… she was angry?

No, not only that.

She was disappointed, ashamed…

"Chaldea was infiltrated months before you came here." The silverish-white haired female director revealed. All eyes turned to her and everyone could tell that she was purposefully steeling herself. "It was a former member of our organization… he… cost us a great deal of our manpower and assets."

Naruto could both be blind and deaf and still notice everyone's grim expression when Olgamarie revealed him this information. He looked around and began to try and pay attention to his surroundings even closer than before. He saw no superficial damages to the facility, if something like an attack or something was committed, then it might've had been repaired already.

Of course, he at least knew what Olgamarie meant by manpower. People had died. And the world hadn't even end yet, what the hell's new?

"Chaldea," she corrected herself, " _we_ believe that humanity's potential extinction is caused by temporal and spatial irregularities we have dubbed as Singularities. Singularities are unobservable region that does not exist within Chaldea's documented and recorded history. Think of it as a hole that appears within the timeline and separates from the regular temporal axis."

"And I'm guessing the spinning blue orb behind you has something to do in helping you?"

"Yes." Olgamarie confirmed with a firm nod. "That is the Global Environment Model CHALDEAS. We utilized the world itself as a foundation and basis for its creation and from it, we can monitor the world's status both in the future and past."

' _So this globe-like thing is what allows them to foresee humanity's extinction.'_ The blonde mused in the form of an inner soliloquy, something only his Biju friends could hear.

" **To think that you humans could build something like this… not even the eyes of the Sage could look back or forward through time."** Kurama commented in subtle awe of what he and his siblings were witnessing. **"But its construction… I can sense that it's not within the normal boundaries of human science."**

Naruto had that figured. "That thing's more than just the work of science."

"We had a… very talented team working behind it." Olgamarie hesitantly said, bringing up her fist to hide her mouth with.

"No…" Murmured the whiskered blonde. Everyone observed as the blonde took slow steps forward and toward the global environment model. With both arms crossed above his pecs, the blonde muttered, "This thing is energy condensed into the shape of the earth."

Fujimaru had her eyes fixed on the blonde. She noticed his eyes. They were no longer blue, but yellow; with horizontal black bars for pupils and orange pigmentation around his eyes. Then, she blinked, and she came to; only to see that his eyes had been blue all this time.

' _W-Was I seeing things…?'_ she asked herself, unsure.

"You can tell, signore?" asked the genius inventor who was genuinely surprised that the blonde came up with that conclusion.

"Mana, prana, od… whatever you want to call them, the world supplies us with plenty of it. People like you, magi, are capable of utilizing them for your magecraft, but way back then, these things were far more potent and dangerous," the blonde explained, "harder to control and harness, but way more effective and permanent."

What happened next caused those watching to brace themselves. It was an action of pure instinct, they did not have a say in it nor did they expect for it to happen in the first place.

Golden flames burst forth into existence, enveloping their vision in brightness and majesty. The source of the spontaneous combustion was none other than the literal blonde on fire standing near the global environment model. The alarm in their heads was quickly dismissed, however, due to the lack of one glaring thing. Heat.

"Don't worry… they don't burn." The man shrouded in golden brilliance informed monotonously, as if he was tired of telling it to people.

"What…" da Vinci took several steps forward, not even realizing this on her own. She stared at the burning man with nothing short of fascination and intrigue. "This is… you're radiating magical energy like crazy, this is what caused our sensors to go haywire from earlier!" the genius inventor breathed out in pure elation.

"Yeah, hope you're not too mad about that."

"No, no… this is amazing!" Her jovial demeanor was cranked up to a whole new level, as the expression of her face matched her feelings. "You are, essentially, a mana beacon right now; you are radiating so much mana that you are steadily filling up our sensors that we've implemented in this room for our generator!" Then, the look of scientific/magical discovery turned to one of frustration. "Signore, you are literally outdoing a magical reactor in terms of production, _how?_ "

Naruto's response to this was a simple, "I have a lot stored in me." he said as a matter of fact. "And this magical reactor you're talking about, it gathers ambient mana from the air both inside and outside of the facility, yeah?"

The blonde scoffed, shaking his head while clicking his tongue. "Must've been a pain in the ass to do then, seeing as how there's barely any in this place here."

"I know right!?" da Vinci whined in a childlike fashion, stomping her foot and all. "It's because most of the ambient mana that is present in the air comes from the harmonics of our technology and _CHALDEAS_ itself! It's like trying to rely on a perpetual motion machine to supply our electrical needs!" She then latched herself onto the blonde's abdomen, burying her face in it and all.

Crying too.

"Someone please get this woman off me."

"N-Now now, Leona, get yourself off the nice man." The doctor chided as he attempted to pry the bawling inventor off from Naruto's torso. Keyword: attempt.

"No, Romani!" Somehow, even with her voice muffled, she still managed to get her voice heard. "This man truly understands the futility of our efforts and hugging him like this feels so nice!"

She raised her head for a moment to get her point across, so that everyone could hear her. "No, for real here, he's actually providing me with prana just from contact alone."

"Wait, what?!" Ritsuka stormed over to the embracing duo - well it's more like da Vinci who's the only one doing all the embracing - and Matthew followed suit a few steps behind. "Really? I thought only masters could supply Servants with prana!"

"Well, that's wrong Ritsuka-kun." Romani, who was still trying to pry da Vinci off of Naruto, informed. "While it's true that Ser...vants… are sustained by their masters in… or...der… to maintain their corporeal and physical form, if there's an alternative source of getting prana, then it is poss...i...ble for them to 'feed off' that other source-oh for the love of… Leona, please let go of mister Uzumaki, you're embarrassing yourself here!"

Speaking of the blonde, who had chosen to detached himself from his surroundings for a moment with his inner tenants, he was in his own little world of his own.

" _So, you think I should just leave? I mean, these people are doing just fine without me if they can goof off like this."_

" **Hahaha, you always attract the most interesting bunch don't you, Son of Man?"** Shukaku chuckled in his, what Kurama had dubbed 'annoyingly murder inducing', voice.

" **...the doctor… I don't like him."** Isobu slowly uttered in a much lower volume than his brother.

" **Aww, why is that, Isobu? Are you afraid of medical practitioners, now?"** Matatabi asked with a hint of sass.

Tuning out his Bijuu friends, Naruto dragged himself back to the real world, where - thankfully - Romani had managed to get the previously weeping genius inventor off of him. Straightening his clothing from all the wrinkles and folds that were formed from da Vinci's bold move, Naruto let out a sigh, shaking off the perplexed feeling he got from having been literally embraced by a crying Italian inventor, painter, mathematician etcetera.

Turning off his chakra cloak, the blue eyed blonde took a few steps away from the Italian Servant who was still being scolded by the pink haired doctor. He casted the director of Chaldea a worried look.

"Is she always like this?"

"Only when she's upset… at least that's what Romani told me before." Said doctor sent them an awkward chuckle and a wry smile. Olgamarie shook her head, directing her attention to the now no longer flaming blonde. "Anyway, after the display earlier, it seems that you'll be undoubtedly useful in your contribution." The young woman then hummed. "I wonder, how are you in the fields?"

"Depends." The gentlemanly blonde replied, combing his short blonde hair back with his fingers. "Different situation calls for different measures, although I have to confess, based on previous experiences I am placed on the excessive side of things when it comes to force."

"With a prana supply that can outdo our magical reactor, I can see that." Olgamarie leveled a dry look at the blonde man.

Was he being honest or humble? It was hard to tell… but the man's reputation spoke for itself; if the association was so hellbent on capturing this man, then he must be resourceful and capable enough push his own weight… or two.

"Let us continue our conversation in the mess hall, I'm sure you require provisions after your travel."

Naruto sent Olgamarie a thankful look and after several vocal agreements from the rest of the company, they set their course for the mess hall.

* * *

He did not know what to expect.

One thing he knew; the world was about to end, although probably not the world in itself, but rather, the people that occupy this green ball of life were about to be annihilated. As a person and human with self-conscience, he found it unfair and downright unreasonable. Despite all the horrible things that humanity had done in the past, did it mean that all of them deserve genocide as consequence for their actions?

Of course not.

...but he was not going to think deeper about it, he was not going to dwell in futility. He was here to lend the people of Chaldea his help and he would do anything in his power to help them.

Fujimaru, Matthew, Romani and da Vinci were needed in their respective departments; each of them having their own roles to fulfill. They left behind a solemn and uncharacteristically quiet silver haired director and a pensive blonde sitting together, opposite of each other and occupying an entire dining table all to themselves.

"We don't know why he betrayed us like that… we thought we knew him, I thought I knew him." Her voice was slowly deteriorating, losing its infamous fiery spits. "As a result, the remaining 46 master candidates are rendered unconscious and have to be put on stasis. I didn't even know that Ritsuka was a master candidate, but she turned out to be one anyway… I'm thankful that she's here now."

"I… was not expecting this." The blonde mumbled, silently perplexed of the information Olgamarie had dumped on him through the course of their meal. "The association… they didn't do anything?"

Olgamarie openly snorted in malice, her expression twisting into one of contempt and irritation.

"The association cared little for Chaldea… when my father was still alive, they would do nothing more than expect results from him and his work. It was not easy, as you can imagine. All the sleepless nights, the work he put in... the people he neglected," her fists clenched, "it was not until we've confirmed humanity's extinction that they started to pay us more attention. It was laughable seeing the looks on their faces when they realized that the work my father had done was not for nothing…"

She sighed, letting out warm breath as well as some of her pent up feelings.

"The aftermath… we had to deal with it ourselves." Olgamarie straightened her posture, but it did little to change her expression. "Before, we had little to no security personnel as a part of our staffs, but after the incident, it was deemed necessary by everyone to recruit security to prevent another breach from happening. The hangar, helicopters, armed guards… those are all new. Most of them were hand-picked ex-military from the British, German and Swiss armed forces."

"Are they fully aware of how things go down here?" asked the blonde man with an arched eyebrow.

Olgamarie caught the hidden meaning. "If you mean are they aware that they're working for magi, then, yes. All of them have sworn secrecy both to Chaldea and the association so we do not have to worry about any leakage of the existence of magic to the common people."

Oh, so they put a Geis on their people.

Interesting?

From what Olgamarie had told him, this incident they had must have been a huge wrench in their plans if they had to include a whole new department into their staffs. But it was probably for the best.

"Why not hire freelance magi to fill in the position of security?" the blonde brought up, folding his arms on the table. "Wouldn't it be a better investment to hire people who are competent and knowledgeable in magecraft?"

"We considered this." Olgamarie told the man. "But we could not afford to make contracts with freelance magi as most of them are… unreasonable when it comes to their price. Even through contacts, we could not just hire people in significant amounts."

Then that's probably why they allowed him to be here in the first place, since they wouldn't be paying him and all. And if they're so tight on budget that meant they really splurged on the facilities here, although he thought that fact was established ages ago.

"Then… what of Lev Lainur? Is Chaldea just-"

"Chaldea will do anything we can do find him and bring him in." Olga interrupted harshly, her look turning heated. "He will answer for the crimes he had done and should we ever get our hands on him…"

The blonde watched as the young woman struggled to finish her sentence. Either she really had no idea what to do with the traitor or she could not bear to say the consequence herself. Either way, now wasn't the proper time to talk about it; Chaldea certainly had bigger things to worry about for the moment.

"These master candidates… how's their condition overall?"

Rather than answering him directly, Olgamarie shot him a curious gaze. "You're awfully inquisitive, mister Uzumaki. Might I ask why?"

"I'm just trying to participate here, miss Animusphere." reasoned the blonde dismissively. "And besides, those are real people whose lives are on the line. I'm not fancy on the idea of people dying… or just death in general." he bitterly said.

"..." The silver haired young woman did not say anything at the blonde's reasoning. Fixing her hair, Olgamarie continued, finally answering the man's question. "They are stable. We lost a lot of staffs during the incident… most of them happened to be technicians and medical personnel. Although he might not seem like it at first glance, Romani does a good job at keeping them alive…"

That was relieving to hear, Naruto admitted to himself. Although it's to be expected… if they're relying on a system that mirrors the one used by Holy Grail Wars then it would only make sense to keep the masters alive rather than having them… killed.

"That makes… Ritsuka-san the, what, forty seventh candidate?"

"Yes… although Matthew was also one of the master candidates until she merged with a heroic spirit to aid us during the incident." Olgamarie revealed. "But don't bother asking me the details, it's… not exactly my place to tell."

The blonde man gave her an understanding nod. Olgamarie, who had gone silent after all the talking, kept to herself. He chose to do the same, although he was very much aware of how much attention he was getting from any available staff members who were on break.

"If I may request something, miss Animusphere?"

"Yes?" Olgamarie responded with an arched eyebrow.

"If it's possible… I would like to be there on the field."

Olgamarie pursed her lips, her eyes fixed on him as if trying to get the answer out of him from staring alone. "...why?"

"I'll be more useful out there. And it sharpens my mind, keeps me at ease." Murmured the blonde with narrow eyes. "And, judging from our earlier conversation back there in the command room, I don't want to be used as a human battery."

Olgamarie let out a low set of chuckles, something that made the blonde feel uneasy. Romani told him that this woman had a mean streak the size of Jupiter; he had to be careful with what he said.

"Very well, we'll consider it. But don't be surprised if we pull you out and put you on a different section. We're understaffed and everyone's doing double the work." She stood up and began brushing off whatever leftover crumbs that might have fallen on her uniform.

"Oh, and please, call me Olga."

Smiling, the former shinobi stood up as well, his folded coat wrapped around his left arm. "Of course, miss Olga."

* * *

 **Not much happened, that's to be expected. Or maybe I'm just lazy, I don't know, take your pick.**

 **Anyhow, Naruto finally met the wonderful people of Chaldea. Now, after reading this chapter, you might notice that the big, huge and uncaring 'FUCK YOU' to Grand Order's overall lore and backstory. Of course, I tried to make them somehow connected, but this is an AU story and I intend to depart from F/GO lore.**

 **If that doesn't suit your taste, then this is the last time I'm warning you. To those who enjoy less than subpar writing, please, you're welcome to stay.**

 **Thank you for the reviews, it seems that this story had caught the attention of interested readers.**


	3. Roadblock

**Chapter's title brought to you by Janis Joplin.**

* * *

Stifling a yawn, a blonde haired man dressed in a semi-formal attire which consisted of a long sleeved white dress shirt, black slacks and matching oxfords roamed the quiet halls of the facility. He rubbed his eyes using his fists as an attempt to shrug off the feeling of sleep, something he was lacking of.

It had been a week ever since he arrived in Chaldea and his 'employer' was quick to give him work. He was expecting to be put on maximum security of some sort before they could even hope of letting him roam on his own, but Olga Marie was nice enough to spare him from such hassle. Instead, he got his new work shoved onto his face like an unpaid intern stuck on a two year 'training' enrichment programme.

Honestly, having to work immediately was not that big of a deal. He could imagine the stress that these people had to go through when they found out the bleak end for humanity's future. And he promised to contribute; lightening the load or so to speak.

His quiet walk took him to his destination, which was none other than the command room itself. However, instead of approaching the center of the chamber where the global environmental model was, he took a left and walked up a short flight of stairs to the bleachers.

The humming of computer consoles and hardware was immediately heard, and the way dimmer lighting forced his eyes to re-adjust the level of light it needed in order to see.

"Ah, old man Naruto, what's up?"

Naruto held back a sigh. His new co-worker - a ginger haired girl who happened to be the only acting master of Chaldea's servant division - had gotten familiar enough with him to call him by that title. Walking up to the younger girl, the blonde man lazily waved his hand in greeting.

"Personally, nothing much, Ritz." shot back the man, bumping fist with the shorter female.

From observing the way they interact alone, anyone could tell that they're close. Even after only a week's time, the two had gone close enough to share jokes and give each other nicknames. Their attention was brought elsewhere when the sound of footsteps drew closer, causing both the blonde and the ginger to swivel their heads to the source.

"Ah, senpai, mister Uzumaki." A sweet, soft, marshmallow-like voice belonging to another female greeted them. Approaching them was none other than Matthew herself… or Mashu… at least that's what they told Naruto they called her here.

He was even more perturbed by 'Mash', even more so than 'Matthew'. Seriously, Mash? Did she name herself that?

"Yoho Mashu!" Ritsuka leapt forward and glomped the curvier girl, enveloping her in a hug. "Fuah, you smell nice as always Mashu-chwaaan!" However, the moment she plunged her face into the other girl's chest confirmed Naruto of her less than decent intentions.

"S-Senpai! P-People are w-watching…" the bespectacled girl whined in a way that sent shivers to the spine of any onlooking male.

Naruto, on the other hand, was too busy shaking his head to get turned on by the sight. Besides, he'd seen even bolder developments before. Stepping forward, the whiskered man pulled the ginger haired girl by the collar of her uniform, breaking the embrace.

"Alright you two, keep the touchy-feely for later; right now, we have a job to do."

Ritsuka openly grumbled, sulking with her arms crossed and her lip showing a full pout. "You're such a party pooper, old man." complained the female master. "Can't we do the briefing later? I want to see how good our chances are with a summoning today."

It explained why she's here, then.

"Remind me again, how exactly do you guys summon heroic spirits again?" asked the blonde with a scratch of his chin.

"Ah, I can explain." Matthew stepped forward, straightening whatever creases and folds that were present on her uniform from Ritsuka's earlier glomp.

"We utilized the summoning system similar to the rituals used in the previous Holy Grail Wars. Sadly, we weren't able to really fully utilize the system and previous attempts of summoning had been… unsuccessful to say the least. Ah, but miss da Vinci's an exception as she's one of the two servants we managed to successfully summon."

' _One of the two?'_ The blonde noted the could be slip up, keeping it to himself.

"However, during the Fuyuki incident, we managed to overcome this problem by using my shield as a catalyst and an establishment of a summoning circle." The girl with the purple motif explained. "A-Ah, but, I don't have my shield to show you, so, maybe next time?" laughed the girl sheepishly.

The blonde brushed her off politely, nodding his head in understanding. "Right, you're a demi-servant." He noticed Matthew fidgeting the moment he said the 'd' word. "That explains why I sense another presence from within you."

"E-Eh, you can sense…?"

Smiling at the girl's confusion, Naruto flashed her a toothy grin. "Yup. We're similar in that regard, actually. But you probably have it easier than me. At least you don't have nine voices annoying you from time to time."

" _ **Boo…"**_

' _Shut up, all nine of you.'_ retorted the blonde mentally before paying attention to the demi-servant again. "Maa, anyway, Matthew. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable… ahaha..."

The glasses wearing girl shook her head, smiling reassuringly. "No, it's fine. Galahad has been very helpful, he's nice too."

"Alright, alright; let's keep the mushy-wushy on the low, mmkay?" Ritsuka interrupted, now with an even bigger pout. She shot the blonde haired man a glare, saying, "You're unfair old man. I can't get a moment with Mashu but you can?"

"My 'moment' with her doesn't involve me sexually harassing her in front of a group of people, Ritz." droned the blonde man crisply. "And besides, the three of us are assigned on this assignment, so I need both of your full attention on this."

Sulking one last time, the orange haired master relented and straightened her posture; seemingly ready to listen to what the older man had to say. Matthew, too, snapped to attention; a lot more seriously than Ritsuka.

"Since we're all present, might as well do the briefing right here," the blonde turned his head, looking at the general direction of the technicians present, "hope you guys don't mind."

Several shook their heads in response, allowing Naruto to resume what he was about to say.

"Alright, Ritz, Matthew; listen up." By the tone he's using, both girls could tell that the man was getting serious. "Da Vinci told me that we're doing less than stellar when it comes to power and honestly, I can already tell the moment Roman brought me to see the magic reactor himself."

The reactor, which was an impressive piece of scientific construct in itself, was doing a poor job in supplying the facility with power. Having gone over the basic functions with da Vinci and the good doctor a few days ago, Naruto knew enough to conclude that should the main reactor fail, they would be in a whole lot of trouble. Every electronics in this place were powered by the reactor; from the global environmental model itself to Romani's cell phone charger that he would always use whenever he's farming for waifus on that stupid mobile game of his.

And their solution for 'backup' power wasn't the most reliable solution since they had to rely on industrial generators. There's a lot of them, and they did provide Chaldea with the needed minimum amount of power to at least make some of their most important facilities operable, but it was not a good long term solution. Olga told Naruto that they used to have an oil platform and a nuclear reactor, but those were used to power the global environmental mode _only_ ; and even the both of those weren't enough to fully power CHALDEAS.

"Which is why we're going to need to find a source of power that can improve the amount of energy the magical reactor outputs." Naruto explained clinically.

"Huh, they mentioned this in the staff meeting a week ago. I was wondering when are we going to do something about it…" Mashu mumbled, feeling glad that the upper echelons were finally doing something about their energy problems.

"Wait, they did?"

"Senpai… you weren't paying attention again, were you?" Matthew gave the orange haired girl a pouty look that really made Ritsuka feel guilty about not listening.

"G-Guh…!" Panicking at the sight of a pouting Matthew, Ritsuka tried hard to not crack underneath the look. "O-Oh yeah, that! Now I remember, haha, in fact, I know about it all along! I was just speaking to myself, Mashu, don't mind me!"

Sighing, Naruto coughed loudly to get both girls' attention back on him.

"Anyway, the dossier should already be sent to you digitally." The blonde looked irked as he was saying this. "Though I'd rather they give us physical copies…"

"Get on with the times, old man. It's all about the digital age." chuckled the orange haired master at the older man. "Helps that we're going green while at it."

Rolling his eyes and dismissing the jab Ritsuka made at him, Naruto crossed his arm and resumed speaking. "But I'll let you girls in briefly on the need-to-knows: we're looking for a mana-condenser - don't worry the term's not that important - da Vinci told me that if she shoved the thing inside the magical reactor, it'll help output energy better."

"Yup, whew, good thing you spare us the details." Ritsuka breezed through the report she received from da Vinci on her wrist mounted terminal. "No way I'm wasting my morning reading through that and rotting a few brain cells along the process."

"It'll probably do the opposite, Ritz. Go and read the dossier, I don't want you to charge into this with air in your head." Naruto sent Matthew a stern look. "Matthew, make sure she reads the document. I'm counting on you."

"Of course, mister Uzumaki." After saying this and giving the older man a firm nod, Matthew held her senpai's hand in a strong grip, undoubtedly causing pain and discomfort for the other girl. "You heard what mister Uzumaki said, senpai."

"Ow ow ow! I-I appreciate that you're holding my hand, but not too tight Mashu and not like this!"

Snorting in amusement over the scene, Naruto shook his head. It seemed that he fit in quite nicely even only after a week of being here. Still, it felt strange that they're letting him take charge of an operation so soon, but as long as people were okay with him leading, he got no reason to complain.

"So," Matthew started, still holding the struggling orange haired master with her hand, "when will we depart and where are we going exactly?"

"We'll depart at 1600 hours, let's meet again in the command room; Olga would want to have a few words before sending us off." The blonde said. "And as for where we're going… err… it'll be easier to show you guys, later." Coughing to a closed fist, Naruto waved it off.

Confused, the two girls could only wonder what the man meant.

* * *

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Eyes snapping open, the Seventh Hokage lowly raised his head to meet the face of the intruder that had managed to find their way into his personal bedroom. The place was slightly bigger than the normal sized ones they gave out to other staff members, and it was equipped with facilities that no ordinary employee could get access to. A private shower, wardrobe and study desk all to himself; what more could he ask for?

Seated on his twin sized bed, the blue eyed blonde glared at his intruder standing just within a reach of his arm.

"I must say, they accommodate you pretty well don't they?"

The intruder's soprano voice would otherwise melted the ears of any red blooded male within hearing vicinity, but he had built up immunity to anything that could kill him or just dangerous things in general. The intruder, however, was deceiving in nature.

Purplish pink parasol, folded, on her person; she carried herself like any fair maiden would. Graceful not only in sight, but also decorum, she appeared to be above the common rabbles. Her beauty transcended looks alone, but as far as superficialness went, she had it all covered. The color purple reigned as a supreme motif, appearing on all manner of accessory that she had on her; even cosmetics.

Her golden waterfall of a hair was only second to the Uzumaki in terms of brilliance, yet they were more well groomed and maintained than the whiskered man's own. Her eyes were nothing but dangerous gleams of stars, tantalizing everyone careless enough to set their own eyes upon hers. Luscious and thick, those lips could straight up kill a man by movement alone when done correctly.

A chorus of heavenly giggling echoed the darkened room. The lack of lights and the light switch flipped to the 'ON' side confirmed Naruto's suspicion of being trapped in her ludicrous mechanism and it pissed him off to an extent.

"...what do you want, Yakumo?" the blonde man asked with flat voice, as if he was not in the mood to see an intruder in his quarters.

"Oh, can't a lady visit her favorite gentleman from time to time?" The woman in purple shot back, covering the lower portion of her face with an oriental fan. "Since we both know you won't, little ol' me had to do it myself."

The silence to her response was Naruto's way of saying that he was not amused by her answer.

"Ufufufu…" From behind her fan, the woman's giggling only served to annoy him. "Why the serious look, Naruto-kun, am I not welcomed here?"

"Considering that this is not my property in the first place… yes, I can say that you're not welcomed." Naruto droned, trying to crack himself out of the woman's illusion. "...and knowing you, I know you want something. Something you shouldn't even be hoping to have in the first place."

Snapping the fan close, the purple garbed woman raised her chin, letting her blonde hair shift with the movement of her head. "You know me so well, Naruto-kun. And, yes, you're right. I do want something… some _things_ , actually."

He could not access his chakra. This was bad. She somehow managed to disconnect his connection with his Bijuu friends from within his soul, too. Sweat started pouring from his forehead, his body strained. The only two things he could move were his lips and his eyes when they blinked. Looked like she came here prepared. He didn't even sense her.

"I'm sorry about muzzling your friends from you, dear, but I'm here for a very important conversation with you." Her smile, now fully visible and no longer covered beneath her folding fan, was sickeningly sweet.

But dangerous.

She raised her left hand, raising it slowly towards him, while the other one held both her fan and parasol in place. Leaning forward, she cupped the man's chin, trailing her index finger along his jawline sensually, and then ending her trail around his neck. He felt bone chilling tingles coursing down his spine, while teeth gritting in discomfort at the action done onto him.

"I can't afford disturbance… especially not when I'm with you."

Her hot breath hit his face and he caught a whiff of her hypnotizing scent.

Lilacs.

Vanilla.

Lavender.

Flowers could be so deceiving. Because, surely, the one in front of him was a thorny rose.

"Ready to listen? If you're ready, I'll let you move."

Powerless, the man was only allowed a nod.

"Good boy." She whispered, before retreating back to her previous spot.

With a snap of her fingers, Naruto no longer felt the sensation of being restrained, now able to move his muscles and body in overall. Directing a stink eye at the woman, he switched to a more comfortable sitting position, his doujutsu activating with a blink of his eyes.

"Ooh, those eyes of yours… tricky, tricky." The mysterious woman clicked her tongue in rhythm with her fingers tapping against her bicep. "Looked like I forgot about those." She retracted the illusions she casted inside the room before Naruto could even hope of dispelling them.

Suddenly, things became normal. Naruto no longer felt a sense of unease that would usually happen whenever he's inside an illusion and he could feel her presence even clearer now. He was still glaring at her, Rinne-Sharingan activated and all, but he was not using his eyes actively.

At her chuckling, his glare only increased in intensity, but it softened shortly after.

He knew that she wasn't here to catch up on lost times or things like that. The woman said it herself; she wanted something. Things. Whatever.

"Now before you ask," he spoke, garnering her attention, "I may not be able to answer most of your questions since it's only been week ever since I was accepted as a part of their staff." Naturally, this meant Chaldea's still keeping certain information from him. But this last part was left unsaid.

The woman hummed, acknowledging his words. "Naturally. But knowing what little you know about this community wouldn't hurt."

"I assure you, we're very straightforward on our goals." The blonde said in his gruff voice. "But the problem is, we don't exactly have the means of accomplishing them."

"Oho? A roadblock so soon?"

"It involves our sustainability." The blonde man waved off. "We're looking to better our energy production. Shouldn't be too difficult to solve considering the brains behind our ops."

"I see." The woman commented. "Anything else you're willing to tell me?"

Disregarding the choice of words she used, the former shinobi spoke, "Aside from the fact that the magi community's treating this whole thing as a magi exclusive business only, I don't have a problem with the people here. In fact, I'm kind'a rooting for them. It always tugged at my heartstrings seeing people working together to survive."

"True, I kind of see what you mean at the end." chuckled the woman.

"So, is that all? Because aside from what I've told you, everything else might be subjective."

"I suppose it'll do." The woman said, straightening the creases on her stylish purple dress. "I believe you, dear. Unlike that mutual… friend of ours."

Smirking, the blonde was reminded that she never went along well with Zelretch.

"You know, Zelretch told me not tell you anything." Naruto said while resting his chin on an open palm.

" _Oh did he now?"_

Naruto almost chuckled. The woman bristled at what he just said. But quickly regaining her composure, the woman with the blonde hair only let minor irritation took over her beautiful face for a moment.

"I truly abhor that man…" Naruto saw the few rare cases of the woman getting visibly annoyed over another person. Only Zelretch could do something like that… well, maybe him too, if he tried really hard.

But wasn't about to do that any time soon.

The woman hissed out a sigh. "Regardless… I appreciate your willingness to talk to me dear." Her charmingly sensuous tone returned. "Please, don't hesitate to visit little old me. I'm sure the girls back home would love to meet you again." She gave him one suggestive wink, causing the other blonde to wince in guilt.

Some things were better left unsaid.

Unfolding her fan, she looked ready to leave. And he was right to assume so. A seam with ribbons holding both of its ends appear on the space below her, consuming her lower half. Due to his position and superior height, he could see the inside of that seam. It was an action he quickly regretted doing.

Many, he's stressing the word, many eyes stared back at him; each of them blinking sporadically as if they're alive. He felt himself shuddering, averting his eyes from the sight.

"Well, ta ta for now and good luck, hero." The woman was swallowed whole by the eldritch portal like seam, but not before blowing a kiss his way.

Closing his eyes, Naruto deactivated his eyes, returning them to their usual sea blue state.

" **Naruto, what in the name of Rikudo just happened?! We couldn't reach out to you for a while back then!"**

"It's… Yakumo." The blonde briefly answered Kurama. "She wanted to talk… but not before disconnecting my connection with you guys, as you could tell."

" **That woman, huh…? She's dangerous, Naruto, way more than Kaguya. Be careful, we don't want someone who could disconnect our connection with you as an enemy."**

"You don't have to tell me that, Kurama." The blonde, who was already exhausted after his conversation with the woman in purple, sighed.

* * *

"Oh good, all of you are here."

Olga Marie might not be very friendly with her greeting, but Naruto flashed the senpai-kouhai duo a smile as well as a small wave when they entered the Command Room side by side. Romani and da Vinci were already present as well.

The director was dressed in her usual clothing, but her face still showed tell tale signs of her most recent all nighters. Wincing, Olga Marie held back a splitting headache, pushing through the pain in order to be able to convey words for the second briefing.

"Mashu, Ritsuka," the owner of the two names mentioned snap into attention, "as per stated in the dossier - I sincerely hope the two of you read it - you two will be accompanying mister Uzumaki to find the necessary apparatus needed for the magical reactor. This is an important task because we can no longer rely solely on normal means of power for our day to day operations."

"We are not expecting any irregular encounters related to a Grail or whatsoever, but it won't hurt to observe caution in the field. With how little we know about the Singularities themselves, we might as well treat secondaries like this with maximum awareness." Olga Marie stopped talking, deliberately pausing her speech. "Anything else you would like to add, mister Uzumaki?"

Stepping forward, the blonde man, now dressed in a fresh set of his suit, thanked the director.

"You two, I know I skipped out on telling you guys about it from the short briefing we had earlier up on the control room, so I'm going to show it here."

To those closely observing the blonde, pretty much everyone present on the floor, the man's eyes changed color and… pattern? One was red, one was purple; but both shared similar features of rippling spiral pattern and magamatas like commas.

"M-Mystic Eyes!" Romani exclaimed, pointing a gloved finger shakily at their newest addition. "You have Mystic Eyes!"

Ritsuka, like the others, noticed it too; but the eyes Naruto was showing were different from the ones she saw during his first day here. Uncertain, she did not say anything.

"Yes, thank you for pointing it out, doctor." The blonde replied without scorn. "I know a place where we can get this… condenser… thing. Or at least something similar to it. However, in order to get there, we'll have to use my eyes."

"What do you mean?" Olga Marie asked, still slightly overwhelmed upon learning of Naruto's Mystic Eyes.

"I can sort of open rifts that can lead to other dimensions. It's one of the reasons why the association and the church have a hard time tracking me." Explained the blonde in a concise manner.

"W-Wait, _other dimensions!?_ " da Vinci exclaimed, once again seizing up the blonde. "Are you telling me you can tear open the fabric of space-time?!"

Arching an eyebrow, Naruto slowly nodded. "Yes? Why do you sound so amazed? The Rayshifting procedure you guys invented is much more complex and amazing."

"It's not about which is more amazing or whatever, signore!" The Italian genius cried, flailing her arms on her side, much to Naruto's amusement. "If you can do something like that, why not tell us sooner?"

"Well, first, you guys didn't ask." Naruto chuckled at seeing their deadpanned reaction. "Second, I wasn't quite sure how you guys will react when I tell you. Now, I know." He laughed.

"Also!" Romani joined in, looking worried. "What about communications? Is there a way for us to monitor you?"

At that, Naruto grew quiet.

"Hmm… you brought up an interesting question, doctor." The man with the set of Mystic Eyes murmured.

"Wait, you don't know?" Olga Marie exploded. "If there's no way we can monitor you, then there's no way in hell are we going to let the three of you continue!"

"Ah," Naruto raised a hand, stopping Olga Marie before she could even bombard him with more questions, "let me clarify myself. I didn't say that you won't be able to monitor us while we're on another dimension. You can. In fact, I've tried that several times when I need to go for a supply run to a different dimension."

He went to other dimensions for supplies… was what everyone was thinking.

"The question is… how are _you_ going to monitor us?" asked the blonde, scratching his head.

"We rely on built in communications that we've programmed into SHIVA." Roman explained. "It's another one of our more important inventions but basically, it requires rayshift accompanied properties in order for it to work."

"But since you're not rayshifting, we've no way of using it." They had da Vinci to thank for concluding their dilemma. "Inter-dimensional communications is a field that even I haven't seriously tampered with and even if we're to do so, it'll require more time and testing."

"Hm, is that so?" The blonde muttered, scratching his chin. "Not to worry, as I've told before, I have a way for communications; so there's no need to worry. Please, miss Olga, may I have your hand?"

"What are you going to do?"

The former shinobi could not blame her wariness. Trust never came easily. "I'm going to place a…" he struggled to find the suitable word, "rune that will allow you to communicate with me while we're dimension hopping."

"Runes? I was not aware you know magecraft…?"

"It's…" Naruto's face contorted to one of thinking. "It's not your standard magecraft runes. It's something unique to me, as far as I can tell."

With a slight hint of hesitation and uncertainty, Olga Marie gave the blonde her right hand. Carefully, the taller man held her hand with as little pressure as he could. He used his grip to place his thumb over the back of her hand, before pressing it with as little force as he could.

It required closer observation, but one could see an ink black marking slowly fading into existence on the back of Olga Marie's hand. She did not show any sign of pain or discomfort upon it appearing, only surprise and fascination.

Da Vinci stepped forward for a clearer look. "Interesting… it's not like any runes I've seen before." The genius Italian inventor murmured in suppressed awe at the mark on the back of the director's hand.

"I'll need to do the same to you and the doctor too." Naruto said, holding out his hand.

The similar process was true for Romani and da Vinci, quick and simple.

"What about us?" Ritsuka asked, obviously referring to herself and Matthew. "Are they only able to communicate with you while we can't?"

"I was just about to do the same to you, be patient will ya?"

However, rather than another marking on the back of her hand, Ritsuka and Matthew received their means of communications by having their foreheads marked. A small, ink black, diamond shaped tattoo-like marking appeared on the centre of the forehead.

"Huh, neat." Ritsuka poked the diamond shaped marking on her head, impressed. "So, how does this work, old man?"

"It's quite simple." Naruto pointed at Olga Marie's mark. "The ones I've placed on miss Olga, da Vinci and the doctor allows them to communicate with us mentally and also synchronize with our senses, although I've limited them to visual and audio only."

Then, the blonde closed his eyes, causing everyone to wonder what he was trying to do.

 _The ones on Ritz and Matthew simply allows them to communicate back here and to each other._

The Chaldeans were surprised when they hear the blonde's voice echoing in their heads and, as expected, each of them reacted differently.

"W-Whoa." Ritsuka appeared to be slightly disoriented, blinking repeatedly while shaking her head. "That's veeeeery weird, it's like talking to myself in my head except it wasn't me."

"Interesting, interesting!" Meanwhile, da Vinci was openly gushing. "So, so, how does the shared senses work, signore Uzumaki?"

"Just focus your mind to see through either Ritsuka's or Matthew's eyes." The blonde explained, now verbally. "You can only see what they're seeing. So, let's say, if either Matthew or Ritsuka's blinking, you will too."

"Ah…" Now it's Olga Marie's turn to get disoriented from the shared vision. "It's… going to take a while to get used to."

"If you feel like you had enough of what you're seeing, just focus your mind again. Try thinking of a… wall or some sort, that'll undo the effects."

It took the three of them a while to finally get used to the sensation of sharing senses. Naruto had his his doubt of using Fuinjutsu or even showcasing it in front of them, but Kurama reminded him many times that he was not in this alone. If he wanted progress, then he'd need to work with his new friends here.

"How many people can you share this 'shared senses' thing, mister Uzumaki?" Matthew asked, looking at the man.

"Hm? The original technique I based this rune from was used as a means of communications within an army." He explained, before making an expression showing that he's doing complex calculations in his head. "So… around a thousand? Two? Three? I don't know exactly, since I've never had to reach those numbers before."

"This will be useful…" da Vinci hummed, her gesture showing that she was entering her 'genius inventor' mode. "If we could apply it to all faculty members, there won't be a need for anymore unnecessary staff meetings."

"What was da Vinci?" Olga Marie growled, tapping her foot on the floor, shooting the Italian inventor a dangerous look. A look that was challenging the Servant to speak up louder.

"Nothing director Olga Marie~" It seemed that da Vinci was used to handling a grouchy Olga Marie, a skill Romani would admit he needed to learn sooner or later.

Of course, the sing-song manner in which da Vinci dismissed Olga Marie served only to irritate her further.

"Now, now." Not wanting Olga Marie to combust like a volcano, Naruto stepped up, redirecting everyone's attention back on him. "That would be hard to do without the proper conditions." said Naruto, referring to da Vinci's solution to solve a 'problem'. "You see, this... neurolink, yes, let's use that term, we have is all based on my brain. It means that everything that needs to be done to maintain connection are all done through concentration and mental effort on my part." He chuckled. "Unfortunately, my mental fortitude isn't as strong as the members of family who originally invented the technique... so sorry da Vinci, we'll still have to stick with good ol' fashion radios."

"Bummer." She said that, but everyone knew that it'll only be a while until she found a way to solve this issue.

"Now," the blonde started again, this time intending to progress their conversation, "We've solved our communications issue, boom, now can we go and start the sortie already?"

"Well." Romani spoke up, earning him Naruto's disappointment. "Even if we've solved something as important as that, I still can't monitor you guys physically. I mean from a medical standpoint, of course."

He then proceeded to elaborate.

"Our computers here are equipped with sensors so good that they can get both the physical and mental reading of a person. So far, we haven't integrated mister Uzumaki into our database just yet, but that's a given since it'll take some time before our techies could do that due to our effort of conserving energy." The doctor was scratching his head. Normally, that was not a good sign. "It will reassure us - _me_ , that Ritsuka and Mashu are in good condition throughout the whole mission."

"Hm," the doctor's concern made Naruto think, but unfortunately for Romani, he had nothing for him. "I'm sorry doctor, but there's nothing I can do about that. But if it's just physical diagnosis, I'm more than qualified to take your place."

The blonde then continued.

"You see, my friend was a field medic back in the days. She taught me a thing or two about things like this."

Romani, seemingly still uncertain on whether or not he should trust Naruto's words, could only nod. "Alright, I'll trust you. But please, keep Ritsuka's safety as number one priority."

"Don't worry about me, doc!" The ginger haired master whined, while Matthew chuckled awkwardly at how unprofessional they looked at the moment.

"Romani's right, mister Uzumaki." Olga Marie nodded. "The only acting master of Chaldea's servant division's safety is very important and should take priority of any objective in the field." The silver haired director looked at Matthew. "Miss Kyrielight, I trust that you'll see to it?"

"Of course." Matthew replied in a soldier-like manner; curt, firm and sure.

Nodding, the blonde haired man expressed his understanding. He knew that Ritsuka's position in the organization was one of the most important, if not the most important one, out of everyone else. Even Olga Marie herself knew this. With the rest of the masters on cryostasis and critical condition, she was their only chance of figuring out this whole Ragnarok-like scenario.

He couldn't help but feel sympathy, however. Someone so young, having to bear all that weight…

But his sympathy for her died as quickly as it came.

He'd been there before. _Him_ , _her_ and he, himself.

He had to endure. They all had to. By logic, Ritsuka and the rest of the Chaldeans had to do the same.

But, hey, it's not like he's a big fan of going silently into the night either.

"You ready, Ritz?" Naruto glanced at the female master, placing an arm on his hip.

"I was born ready." The girl replied, smirking.

Seeing that huge smirk plastered on her face made Naruto produce a smirk of his own, too.

"Alright then." Taking in air, he released it shortly after.

Turning his back towards the rest of the Chaldeans, he looked at the empty space before him. This actions confused those watching, but that confusion was then changed into something else entirely.

" **Kamui: Authority of The Gods."**

He had to thank his old and dearest asshole of a friend. His last gift to him was certainly godsent.

He was his brother in all but blood, yet it was their blood that had the highest chance of potentially matching when compared to things like style, looks and attitude.

Or maybe it had to do with him having all the nine Bijuu sealed into him?

...he liked the previous one better.

A spiralling, almost rippling pattern form on the fabric of space in front of them. They watched as a phenomenon occured right before their very eyes. It was a phenomenon because it had been stated to be plausible, yet they had only seen it right now with their very eyes.

Everything beyond that spiralling portal was darkness, black, more dark than the darkness of space.

Before the breach, the former Shinobi turned his body so that he may face his allies again, looking completel nonchalant as if it was a normal occurence to see the fabrics of time and space being ripped open for him.

"Well, that's our way on solving our energy issues, let's go."

Gulping, Ritsuka shook off whatever uncertainty she had in her. Her mind's made up. This was her job. Matthew, who was standing beside her, looked like she had prepared herself for what's to come. Shaking her head, Ritsuka was now determined to start the mission.

Besides, she'd played Portal before.

With the lead of the formally dressed blonde, both kouhai and senpai duo entered the breach, leaving behind nothing but traces of prana and od for the sensors in the room to pick up.

...just hope the cake they're looking for wasn't a lie this time.

* * *

 _ **Next time on Fated to End:**_

 _ **Our protagonists finally reached their destination, a mysterious dimension that was the remnant of what would be… of what could be. Join our trio of dimension hopping, time travelling, energy saving heroes as they search for the source of power they need for their home.**_

 _ **And… what's this…**_

 _ **Magical Girls?**_

* * *

 **Welp, that's it for this chapter.**

 **How was it? Good, bad, decent? I don't care, but hey, if you feel like wasting time writing reviews in the reviewer's section please do so! It's not like I'll use them to underhandedly improve my writing or anything.**

 **But, enough sarcasm, real talk now.**

 **I know that I like to put references in my stories, and sometimes, I got a little bit too ambitious and made full blown story arcs just from them. Now, the question is:**

 **Would you guys want me to put a list of the things I might reference in my chapters? Like the ones in the first half of my "I'm just an immortal living my life as a youthful teenager!" story?**

 **If so, please do tell. If not, please do the same.**

 **Well, that's all I have to say. See you guys next time.**

 **And don't worry, I'll have that rewrite of immortal posted soon…**

 **...soon in my own terms, at least.**

 **-Rain**


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